


Not Once, But Twice In A Lifetime

by BonneyJewelry



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Impel Down, Marineford Arc, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23802496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonneyJewelry/pseuds/BonneyJewelry
Summary: On the way to Wano, Luffy is forced to rest by his frantic reindeer doctor. When he snaps his eyes open again, he is not where he expects to be.Is that Aces Vivre Card?
Comments: 97
Kudos: 683





	1. Chapter 1

Suddenly Luffy snapped his eyes open and he immediately jolted into a sitting position. Confused he looked around the dark room.

‘Where am I? This doesn’t look like a room on the Sunny.’

Luffy jumped to his feet, so he could explore the room. He reached behind his back to grab his hat, but he grasped at air. Feeling a surge of panic grip his heart, he looked around for his hat but it was for naught.

‘Damn, did I misplace it again? Come on, thinl. Where did I leave it? The last thing I remember is sleeping in the infirmary, after Chopper practically turned me into a mummy. Not like I can do much else, when I’m bound in bandages.’

His head started to turn red, from thinking so much and it hurt his brain. He decided to give up for now and just figure out what kinda mess he’d gotten himself into this time. 

‘Oh man, Nami is gonna be so mad when she finds out that I’m gone. She’ll probably throw a fit and scream at me for being a trouble magnet.’

Luffy shivered feeling a phantom pain on his head, from all the times Nami bashed his skull.

“Mugi”

‘Huh, what was that?’

“...chan”

‘What’s going on?’

Distant shouting could be heard from beyond the walls of the room and with a start, Luffy realized that he could sense multiple presences not too far away.

“Hang...”

...there”

‘That voice, why does it sound so familiar?’

Feeling even more confused, Luffy followed the sound of multiple voices screaming something he couldn’t even start to comprehend and it led him directly to a huge wooden door.

“HANG IN THERE”

Now this close to the door, he could clearly hear what was being said, but it didn’t help his confused mind much.

‘Are they.... are they talking to me?’

...

‘I guess there is only one way to find out.’

“Gomu Gomu no .... pistol“

Rearing back his arm, Luffy punched the door making it fly of its hinges and from the sound of it, crash against someone.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT”

“Ivankov-sama!!!”

“Are you alright?”

“OF COURSE I’M NOT ALRIGHT, A FUCKING DOOR JUST HIT ME.”

A second ago, Luffy thought that he couldn’t get anymore confused, but he resigned to his fate that his day was probably only gonna get weirder from here on.

“Mugi-chan, you’re alive?”

Turning to the direction of the voice, Luffys eyes practically turned into saucers.

“Bon-chan? What? I THOUGHT YOU DIED!” Luffy exclaimed and rushed up to Mr.2, to engulf him in a hug.

Now both of them were sobbing into each others arms and babbling incoherent words like, “I thought you died/were gonna die.”

“Mugiwara-boy!”

Reluctantly letting go of Bon-Clay, Luffy turned around to face the one who called him. 

Ivankov was standing tall and proud.... with a big red mark on his face.

At this point he didn’t even question why the Okama Queen was here, he was only interested in who hurt one of his precious people.

“Waaah, Iva what happened to your face?”

“You happened, you insolent boy, how dare you throw a door at the me?” Iva questioned with a furious face.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. Shishsishi” Luffy couldn’t help himself from letting out a few chuckles. Red really fit the Okamas face pretty good.

“Tch, I’ve never seen such disrespect directed at me. ME! Do you know who I am? I one of the Commanders of the Revolutionary Army. I work directly with non other than Dragon himself, the Leader of the Revolutionary Army.” He said, pridefully and expecting shock and surprise from the young boy.

Luffy only stared at him like he’d lost his mind, “Silly, I know about that already, after all he’s my father. Even though I only met him like once in person and didn’t even end up talking to him.”

“EHHHH”

Ivankov flew from the shock and crashed against the wall, causing it to crumble beneath him.

“You... you’re Dragons son, but then that would mean that Ace is also his son. I can’t let Dragons son get executed! Everyone get ready, we’re breaking out today and taking Ace with us!”

Not only was Luffy stumped, but so was everyone else.

“But that’s too sudden we are not ready to break out yet.” exclaimed an Okama, with the majority loudly agreeing in the background.

“Hold up! What do you mean Ivan-chan? Ace is already dead!”

Luffy spoke with an angry face, pissed off that Ivankov would bring up his dead brother, knowing how much pain his memory brought him.

“Dead? Of course he isn’t dead! I have to admit you did spend around 18 hours recovering from that poison, which is way earlier than I would ever anticipate, but we still have time to save Ace. The guards might take him from his prison cell earlier than planned, because of all the commotion you’ve caused, but I haven’t heard of any prisoner being escorted out yet, so he should still be in his cell.”

A heavy silence settled around the room, until Inazuma broke it by shoving a bundle into Luffys arms. 

“Here are your clothes, put it on so we can leave and rescue your brother.... unless you’ve changed your mind.” Inazuma said with an unreadable expressions on his face and just sipping his wine, looking like he couldn’t care less what Luffy would do.

Luffy looked into his arms, where a yellow vest was and a straw hat was laying innocently on top of it. Slowly he put his hand inside the red band, grasping for a piece of paper he knew wasn’t gonna be there, but he hoped that somehow, someway, it would be.

Things were slowly but surely adding up in his mind. He remembered this, even if he shoved the memories so far back in his mind, just so he wouldn’t recall them. Now though, he was searching for them, pulling them back together, like pieces of a missing puzzle.

Long forgotten memories resurfaced and he realized why this all seemed familiar. His mind hadn’t caught up as quick like his body and instincts did, till now. Now he knew for sure that this was Impel Down, that he had just lost 10 years of his life to Magelans poison and in the same day, he would be losing his brother too.

After all, the proof of it was laying innocently on his palm.

A piece of paper with only a three letter word written on it, whose edges were slightly burning.

ACE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never planned to ever post anything or even write something to beginn with, but here we are. I don’t have any plans for this, I just write whatever comes to my mind on the spot. English isn’t my first language, so I hope the mistakes I make don’t annoy you to much.


	2. Chapter 2

Not everything added up though.

‘I remember this, but didn’t Bon-chan collapse the first time around, did I actually travel back in time, or did I maybe even land in a different world, dimension or universe, or am I just dreaming. Maybe Katakuri hit my head too hard and I got a con.. cus.. ehh a head injury. Hehe, I’m not Chopper so I don’t know any medical terms or whatever.’

“Mugiwara!”

“Huh, what?!?” Luffy snapped out of his musings.

“It seemed like you were spacing out. I’m still waiting for an answer. Are you ready to save your brother?” Inazuma asked with a frown.

“Yosh I don’t know if this is a dream or not, but it doesn’t matter. We are in level 5.5 and level six is below us right?” Luffy asked, actually looking fully determined to save his brother.

“Ah, yes we are currently right below level four and above level six, but how do you know about the last level and level 5.5? It’s not really a secret, but neither is it common knowledge.” Ivankov questioned with a piercing look.

Luffy just chuckled and exclaimed that he just knew and looked back down at Aces vivre card. Finally fully clothed, Luffy started to follow the paper and Bon-chan and the others followed him with questioning looks.

“Oi is that your brothers vivre card, Mugiwaraboy? Even if you follow that, it’ll just lead you down since he is beneath us, but to get to level six, we’ll have to go up to level five and run through there to reach six.”

“Nope this time we’ll do it different, wherever the card leads me, will be my way.”

Running through the long corridors, Luffy followed the paper and ignored the okamas questions about his supposed way and what he meant with this time. The last time around they had ran through the level five and had reached Aces cell too late. This way would be hopefully much faster, since he planned to just make his own door.

After a few minutes of running on full sprint after the Straw Hat Captain, the okamas came to a screeching halt. Luffy had suddenly stopped, seemingly for no apparent reason.

A wicked grin split across Luffys lips and he tucked the vivre card back in his hat.

“It’s pointing right below us....

Gomu Gomu no stomp”

Luffy pulled up his leg and applied haki to it, before shattering the ground beneath him. Startled screaming could be heard for a second as rubble rained down on the two prisoners down in level six.

One second Ace was thinking and worrying about his trouble magnet of a brother and the next second he had a ball of sunshine in his lap, practically beaming at him and rubble surrounding him everywhere.

“Lu...Lu...LUFFY?!?!”

Luffys immense grin slowly diminished to a small smile and the tear gates opened, before he flung his arms around his older brother, who for the life of him, couldn’t understand what the fuck just happened.

“Ahh so this is what he meant with his way.” Ivankov jumped down and was soon followed by Inazuma. 

Finally letting go of his brother, Luffy stood back up and everyone looked at him expecting him to explain how the hell he was planning to get out of here, after he had made a crash and practically alerted all the guards.

“Alright listen up, here is the plan. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s the best I could come up with.” Luffy exclaimed, knowing full well, he normally was never the one to come up with a plan, much less one to follow it.

“Inazuma, I need you to cut free some prisoners including Jinbe, Crocodile and Ace obviously. I sneaked into this prison, but we will storm out of it. The enemy is not only the guards, but also Teach. I know he’s here and he’s gonna try to recruit some prisoners, no matter what, we can’t let that happen.” Luffys voice rang through the cell in authority, making everyone blink surprised at his serious voice.

“Wait, Teach is here? How do you know about this Luffy and his plans too?” Ace was furious, that bastard had not only killed his shipmate and captured him, but know he’d somehow gotten involved with his little brother.

“I’ll kill him. That bastard. Luffy let me at him. He won’t catch me by suprise this time. I’ll defeat him for sure.”

“Calm down Ace, how or why isn’t important. If you’re gonna take him on, you’ll need support. Jinbe would you mind helping Ace defeat Teach?”

“It would be my pleasure, Thatch was also a friend of mine, so his death must be avenged.” Jinbe accepted and stood up after finally being freed from his chains by Inazuma.

Luffy turned around and stared straight through the bars into the cell across.

“Yo Crocodile, wanna get out of this dump?” A wicked grin crossed his face again, looking at the shocked former Warlords face.

“You.. you’re planning to bust me out too? When you’re the reason that I’m in here in the first place?” Crocodile never expected to understand this boys mindset, but this was even more ridiculous than he’d thought Mugiwara would ever get.

“Shishishi, what happened in Alabasta is in the past now, we need your help to get out of here and we are also your only hope to escape this place. Unless you like it here? I don’t jugde. Shishishi.” Luffy finished his little speech with more laughter, like he wasn’t just planning to take one of his enemies with him, while breaking out of the most secure prison in the world.

“Alright what’s the catch, you want me to be the decoy or something? I can’t think of any other reason for you to take me with you.” 

‘Why is he being so difficult? The last time around he was the one who asked to join our little escape group.’ Luffy mused, before finally answering.

“I need your help in defeating Magelan. He’s the strongest guard here and his devil fruit is a real problem. I would know since I almost died from it.”

“WHAT?!?!”

Ace was promptly ignored and Luffy continued like he didn’t just announce his brush with death.

“We’ll be freeing a few hundert prisoners and then we’ll start a little war of our own, which we’ll hopefully come out on top. That way we’ll be able to leave here on our own pace and not be chased by the guards. It’s also the only way I can think of, of opening the gates without having to leave anyone behind. No guards can close the gates back up, if they are not conscious.”

“You mean dead?” Crocodile questioned with a smirk on the corner of his mouth.

“To be honest, as long as they are not in our way, I don’t care what happens to them.” Luffy said with an air of indifference, which shocked Ace, who didn’t expect his little brother to be so ruthless, but he accepted it without a second thought. After all, he didn’t care about the lives of the guards who tortured him both mentally and physically during his stay.

“So the plan is to pretty much free some prisoners and together fight through to freedom.... doesn’t sound much like a plan, but I like it.” Jinbe said, exiting the cell together with the others.

“Alright Mugiwara, since this is your plan, tell me who else you want uncuffed.” Stepping up to Crocodiles cell, Inazuma quickly cut him free and together the group followed Luffy.

“I rather not free anymore level six prisoners, but we’ll free most of the prisoners from level one to about four. But we’ll do that once we reach the upper floors, right now we should focus on beating these guards first.”

“Eh, what guards are you talking about?” exclaimed Ivankov and not a second later, you could hear thundering footsteps of prison guards arriving at the scene.

“I mean these ones.” Luffy stretched his leg and the moment the guards rounded the corner, he swiped them all away like flies.

*Silence*

“Well that was anticlimactic” Inazuma was surprised that the boy was so full of energy, when not even ten minutes ago, he was writhing in pain from the procedure.

Beating a few more guards on the way, they finally reached level 5 and there he was, non other than Blackbeard himself.

“Zehahahaha, Commander Ace what are you doing out of your prison cell?” Teach was standing there surrounded by not only numerous dead guards, but also with his four other crew members.

‘Oh, I totally forgot about his crew. This complicates things. There is no way I’m gonna risk Aces and Jinbes life fighting against all five of them.’ Luffy got into a fighting position, which signaled the others to follow into his footsteps.

Without waisting another second, both groups jumped at each other. Jinbe and Ace going for Teach and Ivankov, Inazuma, Crocodile and Luffy going for Van Augur, Doc Q, Laffitte and Jesus Burgess respectively.

Laffitte was flying around the whole place, dodging Crocodiles sand attacks left and right. The sand logia was hot on his heals, using his devil fruit to fly right behind the winged man. 

“I wonder what would happen if I ripped of your pretty little wings, would they grow back or is your devil fruit more useless then it looks, birdie?” Crocodile taunted with a maniac grin. He’d been in that cell for far too long, he’d almost forgotten how good it felt to be intangible sand again and to be the hunter instead of the prey. 

Ivankov was jumping, ducking and dogging every bullet shot with so much ease, you wouldn’t expect the enemy to be one of the most skilled sharpshooters on the planet. This did not mean that the Okama Queen was on the defense though. He was shooting Death Winks left and right and Van Augur was dogging them maybe even faster than Ivankov. It seemed like the end of this battle, depended on who would have more stamina.

The shrill sound of metal scraping against metal could be heard, as Inazuma pushed his scissors against Doc Qs double-sided scythe. With his other hand Inazuma reached to the horses neck and before he could snip his head off, the horse stepped back, narrowly missing his head getting chopped off.

“How rude, going after a defenseless animal.” Doc Q lazily drawled.

“Your pet is of no concern to me, it is merely in my way of getting to you.” 

Inazuma was already pissed that he had to put down his wine glass for the fight. The enemy running of on his horse, only helped to frustrate him more, but the only emotion you could see on his face was indifference.

This is not how he had expected to spend his day when he woke up.


	3. Chapter 3

Jesus Burgess was pissed, everyone else was fighting some big shot pirate or revolutionary and he only got a twerp. The fact that he was even giving him a bright cheery smile, like Burgess wasn’t about to pound his skull, only helped to further his rage.

Alas him underestimating our beloved straw hat captain, would only bring his downfall.

As Burgess arm shot forward, it clashed with the fist of a giant. The words “Gomu Gomu no Giganto Pistol” rang through his head as he was send flying.

*Meanwhile*

“Zehahahaha, so you’re here for a rematch Commander and I see you even brought bak up with you.” Teach sneered with all the confidence in the world, since he’d already defeated Ace before and Jinbe helping him would not change anything.

“Don’t ever call me Commander again you bastard. You lost that right when you killed Thatch. I don’t need anyones help to defeat you. Even if I die here I’m taking you with me, I’ll see you in hell.” 

“HIKEN”

Starting of with his signature attack, Ace ran at Teach with the intend to kill. The only way Blackbeard was gonna be leaving this place, was gonna be in ashes.

Jinbe sighed “This brat is gonna be death of me. Wait up Ace.” Jinbei joined the battle using his Fishman Karate to its fullest abilities. He wouldn’t ever forgive himself if Ace died fighting against this traitor.

Ace wasn’t the one who was gonna be executed today, it was Teach.

Blackbeard barely had time to put up another darkness shield, before fire bullets started raining on him.

‘How does he have so much energy when he was just rotting in a prison cell.’ Teach was frustrated, having to constantly be on the defense.

Ace wasn’t giving him many openings to attack and all the holes in his defense were being covered by Jinbe like a damn guardian angel.

‘Damn I wish I had some bak up too, I didn’t expect them to tag team this good.’ It was like Teachs prayers were suddenly answered, when a second later his crewmeber joined him. He would have immensely appreciated it, though if Burgess hadn’t literally crashed into him.

While this was probably a great opportunity for Ace and Jinbe to finish him off, neither of them took it. They were too busy overcoming their shock, that was caused by Burgess literally flying through the air like he wasn’t a 12 foot tall guy.

“Shishishi, sorry did I interrupt your fight?” Luffy came rushing in with the most innocent grin Ace had ever seen.

That look definitely spelled trouble.

“Prepare yourself Jesus, because I’m coming for you.” was the only warning Luffy gave before, rocketing himself into the poor guy who had just barely extracted himself off his Captain.

The moment Teach got back his bearings he was beat red in the face. “MUGIWARA, YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS” he screamed and the ground beneath him turned pitch black and stretched all the way to Luffy.

Sensing the approaching danger, the rubber boy jumped into the air, grabbing a chain hanging low from the ceiling. The darkness didn’t stop there and started reaching up like demons pulling you into hell.

“Are you seriously ignoring me Teach?” Aces hands were glowing a light green and little balls were floating from them like fireflies, “Hotarubi” he whispered and the fireflies surrounded Teach.

“Shit, not this again.” Teach knew this attack, since this wasn’t the first time Ace had used it against him. As fast as he could, he pulled back the darkness from Luffy so he could use it to defend himself. There was a limit to how much darkness he could create at a time and he had already stretched it too far to reach the brat.

“Hidurama” Ace started the second phase of his attack and the fireflies flew directly at Teach, before he could cover himself. The next thing Teach knew, was that he was burning, everywhere. The fireflies had penetrated his skin and it felt like they were burning him from the inside, while there was no visible injury on the outside. It didn’t help that his devil fruit made him physically weaker against attacks.

His agonized screams could be heard almost through the whole prison.

*Meanwhile*

“What was that?” asked a frightened Buggy hiding behind Galdino.

“Sounds like a prisoner is getting tortured a few levels below us.” Mr 3 shuddered “I’m glad that we weren’t enough of a threat to them, to put us any levels lower.”

Their conversation was interrupted, as hunderts of footsteps could be heard, running right into the duos direction.

“Kyyyaaah, it’s our turn now. I don’t wanna get tortured.” Buggy screeched his body flying upwards and hiding behind a pillar, leaving his feet rooted on the floor.

“Oi, don’t leave me behind, you traitor” Quickly crafting a key from wax, Mr. 3 locked himself into an empty cell, hoping the guards would bypass him.

...

*Crash*

“What? Who left his shoes laying on the ground, just for me to trip on them?” The okamas helped Bon-Clay of the floor and he stilled after taking a closer look at the shoes. “Am I hallucinating or are does severed feet, that I’m looking at.”

“No, we see the same thing.” Announced several okama and one reached to further inspect the severed foot.

However he was interrupted before he could even get close to the feet, by a ... flying clown?

“Don’t you know it’s rude to touch someone without their permission? Like it wasn’t already bad enough that this dumbass stomped on them.” Cradling his feet in his arms, Buggy sobbed, mumbling about shitty okama abusing his poor feet. 

“Mr. 2 is that you? I didn’t even know that they also placed you in Impel Down.” Mr. 3 asked his old partner in crime, strolling out off the prison cell, after realizing that the coast was clear from guards.

“Ah, Mr. 3, you were just the person I was looking for. I need to ask a favor from you.”

*Back to level 5*

After Aces last attack, he’d thought that, that bastard would be out for the count.

Oh how wrong he was.

Blackbeard had surprisingly pulled through and finally wrapped himself in a black cocoon and he was gone the next moment.

‘Where is he? Not in the front, back, left or right. Neither is he above. That can only mean..’

Before Ace could finish his thought he started to sink like he was standing in quick sand. He tried to pull his legs out, but the dark mass was insistent, it had no plan to let him go. Quite the contrary it was pulling him deeper and Ace couldn’t even turn into fire to escape, because it was canceling out his powers.

Fire Fist didn’t have anything to grip on, to pull himself out either. He was stuck and Jinbe couldn’t get any closer or else he would also get pulled in and that’s the last thing Ace wanted. 

‘My life isn’t worth risking my nakamas life for.’ were Aces last thoughts as he waited for the inevitable feel of his body being crushed in the Blackhole.

“Please get out of here save and alive Luffy.” he whispered. Excruciating pain hit his lower body, as his bones started to crack under the immense pressure.

“Don’t worry, we’ll both get out off here alive, no matter what.” was the last thing his mind registered, before it pulled him out of the world of consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

“Well, I guess this is how I die.” mumbled Luffy staring at the black mass, that was rapidly catching up to him.

The rubber boy gripped the chain tighter bracing for impact, but none came. Luffy watched confused as Teach retracted his Devil Fruit. His eyes widened, when he saw that Teach was trying to protect himself from Aces onslaught.

“Shishishsi, lucky me.”

While still hanging from the ceiling, Luffy looked around to try and find his original opponent, meanwhile ignoring Teachs echoing screams.

‘Hm, I wonder if I shot him too far and he couldn’t find his way back?’ Luffy was contemplating if he should go look for Burgess or help someone fight their own opponent.

The choice was pretty much taken from him, when he realized something was wrong, very very wrong.

His senses were practically screaming at him to turn around. Swinging his body around to look behind him, he was horrified when he saw his big brother get pulled straight into a black hole.

Wrapping his legs around the big chain, Luffy immediately stretched his upper body to reach Ace and heard him whisper “Please get out of here save and alive Luffy.”

Wrapping his arms around the logias chest, he assured “Don’t worry, we’ll both get out off here alive, no matter what.” and promptly let his body retract to itself, successfully pulling the know unconscious Ace out of the blackhole.

“Okey, okey, no need to panic, everything’s gonna be alright. Ace isn’t gonna die, not again. I won’t allow it, no matter what.” Luffy repeated to himself, like a mantra, to keep himself sane.

He had no time for a panic attack, he had to get his brother to safety first and maybe some medical attention, cause he’d definitely not come out unscathed.

Looking around, Luffy checked the battlefield and realized that Crocodile, Inazuma and Ivankov had already finished their fights.

Doc Q had cuts everywhere on his body that Luffy could see and he was laying in a deep dark red puddle. If he wasn’t already dead, he wouldn’t survive for much longer with all that blood loss.

Inazuma was resting against a pillar, tending to his own wounds, while sipping his wine.

Crocodile was ripping off feathers from a winged Laffitte, seemingly inspecting the still pristine wings that didn’t look like they belonged on a mummified corpse.

Luffy shuddered slightly feeling bad for the poor soul, since he knew how it felt to be on the receiving end of the attack that caused Laffittes death.

“Oi Mugiwara-boy, give me Ace-boy, I’ll treat his injuries.” Looking down, Luffy saw Ivankov waving at him, while sitting next to a brown curly haired woman.

Luffy jumped down and carefully placed Ace in front of Ivankov, so he could treat his injuries. He stared at the battered woman confused before he realized, startled that, that was Van Augur.

“I injected him with female hormones and that totally threw him of guard. Beating him afterwards wasn’t to hard or should I say beating her? Heehaw.” Ivankov laughed mirthfully, but Luffy already wasn’t paying attention anymore.

“Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk” Luffy shot forth his arm aiming directly at Blackbeard who was too busy fighting against Jinbe to notice that his crew was laying dead a few feet behind him, nor that he was getting attack from the back.

——

As soon as Jinbe saw that Ace was save he’d gone on the offense and attacked Teach without mercy. Blackbeards devil fruit wasn’t helping him much in defending against Jinbes water attacks, since they only nullified devil fruits and not fishman karate.

‘Where the hell did he even find a water source from in this hell hole?’

All this jumping and dogging was seriously taking a toll on his stamina. He’d gotten so used to hiding behind his devil fruit and before that, the whitebeard pirates always had his back.

A sudden force hit him from the back and he could have sworn he’d heard his Spine crack. Fire burst through his chest and he collapsed on to the ground, like a sack of potatoes.

He rolled his head to the side when he heard footsteps approaching him. He could barely make out a face with black eyes and raven hair staring at him with so much hate.

‘Of course I would end up dying at my old commanders hand. No one else could create fire this burning hot.’ Marshall D Teach gave a weak chuckle, together with his last breath and his body finally succumbed to all his injuries.

Are all Ds meant to die with a smile on their face? No matter who they were, what life they lived or how they died?

“Sorry that I delivered the last hit Jinbe, I just couldn’t hold myself back after he hurt my brother.”

“It is quite alright Luffy, let us regroup and rest, before we have to inevitably fight against Magelan and the other guards.”

——

“Zehahahaha, did you really think you could defeat me Portgas D Ace?” Blackbeard was standing tall grinning menacingly down at Ace, who was crawling with his arms, pulling his deadweight crushed legs behind him.

It hurt so much, but he had to pull through the pain to reach his little brother, who was laying motionless just a few feet away. 

When the rubber boy was finally in reach, he grabbed his arm to shake him awake, but he pulled his hand back like he’d just gotten bit.

Luffy was ice cold and he wasn’t breathing. Ace pulled himself on top of him trying to warm him up with his heat, but it didn’t change anything. Luffy didn’t move, didn’t blick, didn’t even so much as twitch and there was no pulse.

“Give it up Commander, the boy is long gone. The whole time he was dying, he was crying out for you. Such a shame he had to die here. If it wasn’t for you, he’d be sailing the sees now as a free pirate. Instead he had to die in this hell hole, just because his brother had gotten caught.”

“Shut up. Stop talking. I don’t wanna hear this coming from you. Luffy isn’t dead, he can’t be. He didn’t fulfill his dream yet, he didn’t become pirate king yet.” denial was written all over his face.

“Neither did Sabo. He died before he could even go after his dream. Your brothers died and you couldn’t protect either of them.... why didn’t you protect my grandchild Ace?”

Ace looked up, shocked by the face that greeted him. “Gramps? What? What are you doing here?”

“I should have known you would corrupt my grandchild, if it wasn’t for you, Luffy would have been a marine and he’d be by my side. I don’t know why I expected anything better from the son of the pirate king. A demon spawn like you never deserved to live.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t want him to die. Please believe me Grandpa.”

Ace was sobbing, the last time he’d cried was when Luffy had gotten mauled by a bear, and the bandits hadn’t known if he was gonna survive. Just like last time, this was his fault, but this time it was obvious. There wasn’t gonna be a miracle recovery from his little brother.

——

“Ace, Ace, wake up Ace.” Luffy was shaking his older brother, trying to wake him up.

“Ivankov somethings wrong Ace is trembling, please help me wake him up.”

Ivankov couldn’t resist those puppy dog eyes and pulled out his nails to impale Ace in his side.

“Arg, what the hell?” screeched Ace, jumping into a fighting position.

“Oh, looks like you’re full of energy. Do your legs still hurt?” Ivankov had the most innocent face expression on, like he hadn’t just given the rudest wake up call.

“Ace, are you alright? You were trembling really bad. Did you have a nightmare?” The straw hat captain reached his arms out waiting patiently.

“Nightmare? Lu..Luffy?” Fire Fist collapsed into his brothers arms, feeling a huge weight lift of his chest. He pushed his face into the crook of Luffys neck, refusing to let go.

Luffy hummed rubbing Aces back “There, there, everything’s gonna be alright. Aren’t you hungry? They have some great food here.”

As if on cue Aces stomach rumbled and he pulled back embarrassed, for not only his rumbling stomach, but because he’d gotten everyone’s attention in the room with his little breakdown.

The sight that greeted him, when he turned to observe the room was Crocodile, Jinbe, Inazuma and Ivankov having a feast and small talk at the dinner table. 

“Did I miss something? What’s going on here?” 

“Well after you decided to take a nap princesse, we got rid of the Blackbeard pirates and then settled into this room to rest. Turns out some guards were having lunch, so we beat their ass and stole their food.Kami, I love being a pirate.” Crocodile grinned pointing to the pile of bodies stacked in the corner.

“Wait with ‘got rid of’ you mean...”

“Died, killed, perished, deceased, unalived... however you wanna call it. The only thing that matters is that they won’t be causing us any more trouble. Except for that Burgess guy, the rubber brat rocketed him away and he kinda just never shoved up again. Now eat something, we don’t have much time and we definitely don’t need a dead weight dragging us down on our escape.”

Ace took a seat at the table, still stunned about the news of his greatest enemies death. ‘Thach, I hope you can rest in peace now.’

Ivankov placed a plate filled to the brim with food in front of the fire logia, who promptly face planted in it.

“Oi, just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean you can be this barbaric, show some manners boy.” reprimanded Inazuma holding his newly refilled wine glass.

“Shishishishi, I think he just had another narcolepsy attack.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Ace-boy is narcoleptic?”

“Yeah, the first time he had it, he didn’t wake up for several hours and we thought he’d died. I cried the whole time till he finally woke up. Shishshishi.” Even though he was shoving food in his mouth the whole time, his words came out surprisingly intelligible.

“I cannot even beginn to phantom how you can find that funny.” Ivankov was exasperated, he would never understand the mindset of this boy.

Suddenly fire fist picked up his head out of the plate, stared confused at the expectant expressions on everyones face and just continued his meal like nothing happened.

“Oi, what’s with that nonchalant attitude?” came from Inazuma.

Crocodile stood up from his seat and marched to the door. “There is no need to exaggerate the situation, he just took a nap. Finish your meal quick, we can’t just stay here like sitting ducks waiting to be captured.”

“At least give him some time, how is he supposed to finish his me...

“Man I’m stuffed, thank you for the meal.” interrupted Ace standing up to follow the others to the door.

Inazumas mouth hung open, realizing he was the only one left in the room, he jumped up and ran out after them.

They past through level five and reached level four without any further complications or fights.

“I forgot how hot it was here, but I guess it’s better than getting frostbite in level five.” Luffy was waving his hand trying to fan himself.

“This place is great. I don’t know what you guys are complaining about.” announced the logia user, who was literally made up of fire itself.

This only earned him a deadpan look from the group before they proceeded on with their plan and started opening all the prison cells and free the prisoners.

A ring of keys was pressed into Ace palm and he looked up confused at Jinbe.

“We took these of the guards while you were out, thought it might be faster if all of us help free the prisoners, instead of putting all the work on Inazumas shoulders.”

“I’m thinking off escaping this place, but I’ll need some soldiers. How about it? Wanna join me... Mr. 1?” Crocodile smiled around his cigar, expectantly looking at his old partner in crime.

“I suppose I’ll tag along, if it’s with you.”

With Daz Bones added to the group, they freed all the prisoners in level four, before guards stormed inside.

“Let the prisoners fight, we’ll sneak out in the midst of the chaos.” With Ivankov in the lead they, they quickly passed through two floors, freeing all the prisoners from level three on the way and reached level two.

There they finally came across Magellan who was busy hunting a hoard of escapees.

“Did you guys already free the prisoners on this floor too?” questioned Daz looking at the riot going on around him, where those okamas that he was looking at?

“No, we did. We also freed everyone from level one. ” interrupted Mr 2 approaching with Buggy, Mr 3 and a group of okama.

“Bon-chan, what, why, how did you..?”

“I heard your plan when we were down in level six. I took everyone with me and we decided to start at the upper levels. There we came across Galdino and with his wax keys, we were able to free all the other prisoners. We convinced them to start a riot, so that’s pretty much what’s happening right now.”

“Don’t think you can leave this prison that easy. On my life, I will not let you guys escape. Justice will be served here and now, even if I have to kill every last one of you.” declared Magellan, the chief warden, blocking their way.

Vice Warden Hannyabal, Head Jailer Domino, Chief Guard Saldeath and Chief Guard Sadi were standing right behind him, ready to capture or kill if needed.

“I’m so ready for this rematch, FIGHT ME WEIRD POISON GUY.” with Luffys battle cry everyone jumped into action, Crocodile helping Luffy like he’d agreed before.

They made a good tag team, considering they had fought against each other thrice back in Alabasta. They new each others fighting style and were able to cover each other backs. 

“Shishishishi. Maybe you’re not such a bad guy after all, Croc.”

“Shut up, I’m only doing this for myself, so don’t get the wrong idea. We’ll be enemies as soon as we are away from this place.” Crocodile finished, grumbling about stupid, reckless, rubber brats.

“Oi, you don’t have to be an asshole about it. Maybe you need another beating from me, you grumpy ass.” Luffy countered back, glaring at the sand logia.

Magellan interrupted, “If you’re finished with your lovers quarrel, can we go back to fighting? I have other shit to do than listen to you guys argue all day.” and shot more blobs off poison at the pair.

The pair easily side stepped the attack, now focusing their glare and disgusted looks on the Chief Warden.

“What the hell, what kinda pervert are you? Like I’d ever go after a little brat who’s still underage.” Crocodile sneered.

A bright light engulfed their vision for a second before, a big ass fire ball crashed into Magellan setting him on fire.

A second later, Ace appeared in front of the former warlord, with fire in his eyes. If looks could kill Crocodile would be greeting Satan right about now.

“Are you insinuating that if my baby brother wasn’t underage you’d touch him with your dirty hands?” Fire fist raged and without waiting for an answer, attempted to scorch Crocodile alive.

“You damn brat. Stop putting words into my mouth. I never said that. I don’t even swing that way.” He kicked Ace in the chest sending the flaming logia flying. Ace crashed into Magellan who’d just extinguished the flames, only to be set on fire again.

‘Wow, this is getting really out of hand. I can’t have Ace fighting someone on our side.’ A lightbulb turned on in Luffys head ‘Let’s see if this works.’

“Ace-nii I’m so glad you’re here. That pervert was trying to grope me the whole time.” Luffy said, pointing directly at Magellan.

“Oh, no” was the last thing heard from the Chief Warden, before he was at the receiving end of a big overprotective brothers fury.

“You are the devil incarnate.” sighed Crocodile glad that he finally had the second Division Commander of his ass.

Luffy just grinned back at him. ‘And Nami always said I couldn’t act or lie to save my life. I wish she would have been here to see this.’

“Kyaah, don’t come any closer you bastards.” Buggy screeched running from a group of guards.

“Buggy the Clown, surrender and you won’t be hurt.”

“What? Did you just say I have a big red nose, that can even be seen from space?” In a second they had the wrath of an enraged Clown on them. He had a psychotic look on his face, twirling daggers in his severed and floating limbs.

“We did not!” 

Their terrified screams could be heard echoing for miles.

Everyone else shuddered not wanting to know who was causing those noises. A few guards and prisoners mumbled “Rest in Peace” and gave the poor souls a moment of silence.

Ace dusted himself of and looked at the charred body below his feet, that was beyond recognition.

“That’s what you get for touching my brother.”

Without another glance he turned his back to Magellans corpse and strolled back to where he left his little brother.

The battle itself didn’t take much longer. A lot of the guards had been send to assist in Marineford for the upcoming war against Whitebeard. The rest couldn’t take the combined efforts of most of the prisoners and crumbled under the sheer quantity of them.

“We should head out now before the other prisoners take all the ships, or else we’ll be stranded here. I already opened the gates of justice and locked and threw away the key to the control room. Even if some guards wake up, they won’t be able to close the gates shut, without access to the room.”

“You’re the best Bon-Chan, lets get out of here... as soon as Ace comes back, that is.”

“Wait, what? Where did he even go.” 

“I’m back, sorry for making you guys wait. I just had to grab my stuff from the storage room.” Ace was wearing his signature orange cowboy hat and a dagger with a green sheath was strapped to his belt. 

Without further ado, the group left the prison, boarded a marine ship and set sail.

“So where are we supposed to go now?” asked Jinbe standing at the helm, ready to adjust the course of the ship.

“I have an idea, but for that I’ll need to make a call first.”

The straw hat captain pulled out a den den mushi which he’d just ransacked from the cabin of the ship.

‘Let’s hope I still remember the number. It’s been years since I last used it, but gramps forced me to memorize it until I could repeat it in my sleep.’


	6. Chapter 6

At the same time in Marineford the tension was high in the air. Sengoku had been trying to call Impel Down for over half an hour now.

The second Divison Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates should have arrived an hour ago, but there still was no escort ship in sight. No one was picking up his calls and he was seriously starting to get worried, that something was wrong.

The Moby Dick had arrived a while ago with Whitebeards allies surrounding him on all sites. Neither side had attacked each other yet, it was like both sides had a silent agreement on waiting for Ace to show up.

“Sengoku, What is the meaning of this? Where is my son? How long do you expect to me wait for?” Newgates voice boomed through Marineford, easily reaching the Fleet Admiral who was standing on the execution stand, next to Vice Admiral Garp.

Before Sengoku could try to talk Whitebeard down, he heard the tell tale sign of a den den mushi ringing.

“Ah thank god, they’re finally calling back. They better have a good reason for being late.” muttered Sengoku pulling his den den mushi out.

He stared confused for a second, when he realized it wasn’t his den den mushi that was ringing.

Listening closely he turned his head in the direction, where the sound was coming from and realized it was non other than his old friend Garp.

“Garp, pick up the goddamn call.” Sengoku snarled.

The Vice Admiral was startled out of staring into empty space and looked back at his higher up. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the ringing den den mushi.

“Vice Admiral Garp speaking, who the hell is this?” He answered the call and was promptly shocked by the familiar voice greeting him back.

“Yo, Gramps it’s me Luffy, I got a favor to ask you.”

“Brat, I don’t have time for this. I’m busy right now, call me back tomorrow.”

“No, no please don’t cut the call. This is really important. I know you’re at Marineford. Would you mind connecting me to the speakers. I have something to tell everyone.”

Sengoku snatched the snail from Garp and glowered down at it. “Straw hat! Why would we comply with your demands? We have nothing to gain from this.”

“Oh, then how about we make a deal. You let me speak to everyone in Marineford, including the Whitebeard pirates, without any interruptions and I’ll tell you who killed your son.”

...

“How do you know about that?” whispered Sengoku.

Ever since he’d lost Rosinante 11 years ago, he’d been mourning him almost everyday.

When he’d received the news of his death, he was devastated. Not only had he lost his only son, Rosinante had died being known as a pirate.

He was reported as a casualty which resulted from a fight between him and a bunch of pirates, that he’d stolen a devil fruit from. He never did find out the identity of his killers, since he didn’t wanna rouse suspicion to himself for caring about a pirate.

“Brat, you better not be lying about this, or I’ll personally make you pay for this. Give me a minute, I’ll connect you to the speakers. We’ll be able to hear you, but you won’t be able to hear us.”

“I don’t mind and thank you Sengoku. I swear I’ll keep my end of the deal, that’s a pirates promise. Shishishishi”

“You calling it a pirates promise doesn’t reassure me at all. Let’s hope I don’t end up regretting this.”

“Are you sure about this Sengoku? Just know that I will not accept you complaining to me later about my troublesome family. If this goes wrong, the blame is on you.” Garp stated sitting down and munching on a pack of crackers, which he’d pulled out of nowhere.

Sengoku ignored his warnings and connected the snail to the speakers.

„Pops, I have a bad feeling about this. Shouldn’t they have brought Ace out already? They must be planning something, but what yoi?” The first mate of the Whitebeard pirates confided his worries with his father.

“You worry to much son, calm your nerves. We are ready for whatever they’ll bring. It can’t be anything worse than a war after all.”

A sudden voice booming through the speakers stopped any further conversation.

“One, two, test, test, can everyone here me? Oh right, you can’t answer me back. Shishishi. I hope this is all coming through. I’m Monkey D Luffy, future Pirate King.”

A sudden bonk could be heard, followed by an indignant squeak. 

“Ma, you’re so mean. Okey, okey I’ll get to the point, just don’t hit me again.”

The Marines and the Whitebeard pirates just stared confused, they didn’t understand what was happening.

“oooh, Luffy-kun I’m so glad to hear your voice” Hancock said, dreamily gaining the attention of the other warlords and marines around here. The Pirate Empress ignored their questionable expressions, so she wouldn’t miss a word from her beloved.

“Wait, Monkey D Luffy? Why does that name sound awfully familiar?” questioned Izo looking at his fellow commanders, to see if they also recognized the name.

“That’s because Ace wouldn’t shut up about him, when he got his first bounty. He shoved the poster in my face at least ten times that day, saying how proud he was that his baby brothers starting bounty was 30 million yoi.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I wonder why he’s connected to the speakers though?”

“It seems we’re about to find out yoi.”

Indistinguishable mumbling came from the speakers for a hot minute, before someone cleared their throat and started speaking again.

“Hey sorry for the wait, know where was I? ... oh yeah, I just wanted to tell you guys that there is no need to fight anymore. This war will only cause unnecessary pain for both sides, you will not gain anything from this.”

“Does this brat even know that we’re trying to save his brother?”

Jozu received no answer, since the same question was playing on the others minds.

“Old man Whitebeard, there is someone who wants to talk to you. I’m pretty sure he’s gonna rip the snail from me if I don’t give him a chance to speak.”

Rustling was heard, before a very familiar voice sounded through the speakers shocking everyone to the core and into absolute silence.

“Pops I... I cannot even beginn to explain how much I appreciate all you have done for me. Now you’re at Marineford to save me and I’m not even there. I’m sorry, I know I’m a troublesome brat but I won’t be shoving up at Marineford. My little brother wouldn’t allow it and I couldn’t argue against it after all the trouble he went through to break me out of Impel Down.”

“Wow what a real man, I can’t believe he had such a gutsy brother. He not only made it in, but he also made it out alive with Ace.” Cheered Vista.

“Gurarara, so that means my son is safe.” Chuckled a satisfied Whitebeard.

The marines were absolutely floored by the news, this wasn’t something any of them had expected to happen.

“We might have also freed a few other prisoners along the way. Just a few, not too many. Only every single prisoner from level one to level four and we also have Crocodile, Jinbe, Ivankov and Inazuma with us from the lower levels.” Ace chuckled mirthfully.

Sengoku was absolutely red in the face. Not only had they lost their most important prisoner, hundreds if not thousands of prisoners had been let free from Impel Down. The most secure prison in the world could no longer hold that title after this fiasco.

“So how about you guys make a tactical retreat and we can meet up somewhere else? Luffy said something about a remote island that we own, where we could meet up. I honestly have no idea where he means though.”

Straw hats voice cut in “Yo Old man, cool flaming turkey we’ll be at the island waiting for you. If you don’t know where I’m talking about, just thing about the answer to this question.

Where would you bury a deceased crew mate?

Oh and by the way, Doflamingo...”

At the sound of his name Doflamingos ears perked, curios what a super rookie would wanna tell him.

“Prepare yourself, because I’m not gonna let you get away with the shit you’re pulling forever. I’ll make you pay sooner or later. You killed your own little brother, Donquixote Rosinante and I hate people like you the most.”

A click could be heard signaling the end of the one-sided conversation and silence settled on the battlefield, where not a single drop of blood had been shed yet.


	7. Chapter 7

“A place where we would bury our crew mates? What is that brat talking about?” Haruta questioned, casually leaning against railing, acting like he wasn’t still on high alert and ready to cut down any marine that would dare to attack them.

“Pretty bold of you to call someone else a brat, shorty.” chuckled a crew member from the second Divison.

“I hope Ace forgives us for not preventing the death of his division member.” said Blamenco and called for a moment of silence for their soon to be dead brother. “I guess we might as well bury him on the island, that we’re sailing to.”

“What are you guys talking about?” questioned the poor fool.

“I’m sorry my son. Not even I can save you from this fate.” Whitebeard pitied him, he was too young to die.

Haruta finally exploded “I’M NOT SHORT! EVERYONE ELSE IS JUST A FREAKING GIANT AND SHOW SOME RESPECT, I’M WAY OLDER THAN YOU.”

In the end, Haruta showed show some mercy and only send the pirate to the infirmary with multiple cuts all over his body.

He’d learned his lesson though and unless he had a death wish, he would never call the fearsome 12th Division Commander short again.

“Gurararara you know what island Aces little brother meant right, Marco?” Whitebeard looked at his first mate and son, who had just come out of the infirmary, after treating his brother. He was grumbling about having to take care of foolish little brothers, since they had left all the nurses behind in one of their territories.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure, I know which island he’s talking about. It just puzzles me, how he knows about that place yoi.”

“Let’s set sail and go pick up your brother, maybe we’ll also be able to find out how he knows that location.”

At Whitebeards orders, everyone cheered, got into their respective positions to set sail and a few went to alert their ally’s of the new plan.

On the other side of the Battlefield, Sengoku hadn’t uttered a single sound since the call had ended. He’d never thought that Doflamingo could have been the killer. He was a lawless pirate, so he technically should have expected it, but it was his own little brother that he’d killed, for crying out loud.

The Fleet Admiral was shaking and Garp the Fist couldn’t tell if it was from anger or sadness. He knew how it felt like to loose a family member. He’d not known his blond grandson nearly as long as the other two ravens, but it didn’t help diminish the hurt he felt.

They were nights were he contemplated quitting the marines, because he didn’t wanna work under the Celestial Dragons, who had killed his grandson. He could never bring himself to do it in the end. Helping people and saving lives, was what he’d always done and would continue to do. 

Right now his old friend needed his help and he was ready to provide it.

“Hey, are you alright? If you want to, I can drag that feathered bastard up here and crack his skull open.”

“No, you know we can’t do that. The Gorosei would never accept me going after a Warlord for killing a Pirate. Especially Doflamingo, as a former Celestial Dragon he knows their secrets and I can’t risk him revealing those.” answered a stoic looking Sengoku.

Magma started to leak from the fuming Akainu, when he saw the ships start to pull away. There was no way he would let the Whitebeard pirates get away, after all the trouble the marines had gone through to arrange this battle.

“Oi, oi, get yourself together Sakazuki. This is no time to lose your control!” Aokiji warned his fellow Admiral.

“This day will not end before I feel the blood of those filthy pirates on my hands.” With that said, the Admiral jumped from his seat and went right after the retreating ships.

“Oh, I’m scared. Sakazuki is so scary.” Kizaru drawled looking not even a tad bit worried or caring. “Should we join him?”

“I don’t care what you do. I’m just gonna wait until further instructions from Sengoku, like we were ordered to from the beginning.” Aokiji didn’t see the point in attacking now, when he didn’t even want to be here in the first place. He preferred hunting Pirates the old fashioned way and not loose thousands of soldiers to take down a yonko.

Killing Whitebeard, who had a lot of islands under his protection, would only bring more disaster. All the former Whitebeard territories would get overrun by pirates and hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians would get hurt.

Frankly Kuzan was satisfied with the outcome. He would have preferred it though, if the Straw Hat Captain hadn’t let out all the other prisoners along the way.

“Akainu stand down.” boomed Sengokus voice. “You don’t stand a chance against Whitebeard by yourself. Return to your seat immediately.”

Akainu reluctantly stilled, throwing a look around the battle field. He realized that, he was the only one on the offensive. Every other marine stood ready to fight and defend, but they didn’t move from their spot. They were ordered to attack only, after the Whitebeard Pirates stepped off the ship, which they had no reason to do now.

Sakazuki glowered at Whitebeard standing at the bow of the retreating moby dick. “So that’s it. You’re just gonna run away with your tail tucked between your legs. I should have expected an old man like you to flee the moment he got the chance, you Coward!

“Your taunts have no effect on me. Now follow your masters orders and return to his lap, Red Dog.” Edward retorted back, which was followed by the snickering of his sons in the background.

Ignoring his superiors order, in a burst of magma, Akainu flew directly at Whitebeard and cocked his hand back to deliver a devastating attack.

He didn’t reach far when, with the swing of his hand, the Yonko cracked the air and send the Admiral flying back all the way to the execution platform.

Sengoku sighed, already feeling exhausted from the days events and grabbed a den den mushi connected to the speakers. “Warlords, thank you for your time, but we won’t be needing you anymore today. You can return back to your territory. Kizaru and Aokiji, restrain Akainu and don’t let him foolishly attack again. Soldiers, return to your posts. This does not mean defeat. This war will not be fought today, but this clash is inevitable, it is merely being delayed to another day in the unforeseeable future.” 

With his announcement finished Sengoku sat down with a heavy sigh and stared out into the sea.

While the marines never expected the day to turn out like this, they trusted their Fleet Admiral and followed his orders.

“I feel like your glaring at me Pirate Empress. Why is that, if I may ask?” Doflamingo turned to Hancock searching for the reason, for why see was currently boring her eyes into him.

Hancock sneered at him and turned her back walking away. “You may not.”

‘I already didn’t like him to beginn with. With Luffy-kun calling him out like that, it makes me hate him even more. Men are really despicable. Excluding my beloved of course, he’s the only exception.’ The most beautiful woman in the word left the battlefield with heart eyes and a dreamy smile on her lips.

She was soon followed by her fellow Warlords, who saw no reason in staying behind after they had been dismissed.

Garp would never admit it aloud, but tears were streaming down his cheeks while leaving the scaffold. He was prepared to loose another grandson, if it meant ending the pirate era, but there was no guarantee of that happening, even if they had took down the Yonko. The memory of his youngest grandson crying over his dead brother resurfaced and he reprimanded himself for thinking he could live with the guild of not only loosing another grandson to the government, but also taking Luffys only other brother.

‘He would hate me for allowing that to happen. No matter what, I have to find a way to protect them, even if it means breaking a few rules along the way.’

Just like that, in less than half an hour, Marineford was empty. There were no Marines and Pirates fighting each other like it was meant to happen, all because of one figure.

With the absence of Portgas D Ace the battle never started and neither did it end in bloodshed. Marines went back to their posts and some went back to their families. They hugged and rejoiced, because they had left their home expecting to die, fighting in a war. After all what was more important than defending their turf and killing pirates?

What was more important than following absolute Justice? Wouldn’t the World crumble without it?


	8. Chapter 8

The stolen marine ship was sailing on its course to an undisclosed location. After Luffy had mentioned the island, Jinbe immediately knew where he meant and adjusted the course accordingly.

Everyone else was out on the deck, save for the two knucklehead brothers, who were raiding the kitchen.

“I’m gonna go look if there is any sake on this ship, don’t eat everything while I’m gone.” announced Ace shooting his grinning brother warning looks, before exiting the room.

‘Now, where would I keep sake on this ship if I was a Marine?’ Ace shuddered not even wanting think about being one. ‘Bleh, like I’d ever follow the Government like a dog.’

Suddenly he saw a black liquid like substance leaking beneath the door of the storage room he had just left from. He quickly jumped back, trying to avoid stepping in it. ‘Luffy must have broken some bottles in there, but this shit doesn’t look edible.’

“Oi, Fire Fist, stop blocking the way and step aside, this corridor is tight enough as it is.” Crocodile came up next to him and stopped to take a look at the floor.

“What the hell? Isn’t that Blackbeards Devil Fruit ability?”

Crocodiles statement crashed into Ace like a cold water bucket and he realized why the substance seemed so familiar. He hadn’t realized it sooner because the others had told him that Teach was dead.

Sand surged from the former Warlords palm and crashed into the door, making it crumble under its force. A black humanoid shaped was standing in the middle of the room, with his back turned to the door.

“What.. no, who are you?” growled Crocodile, making the black substance turn around to face them.

No specific feature was identifiable on him, but that’s not what drew Aces attention, it was his hand wrapped around Luffys throat. His little brother was dangling in the air, choking on his own breath and trying to pry the fingers of his neck, with no success.

“LUFFY! You bastard, what do you want from him?” Ace raged, barely being held back by Crocodile from jumping at the enemy.

The black substance started to retreat from his head and upper chest and a familiar face appeared beneath it, smirking at him.

“Of fucking course. Who else is it gonna be, aside from the one Blackbeard Pirate, we let out of our sight. I should have known this would come back to bite our ass. The real question is how you have your Captains Devil Fruit?”

“Didn’t you know Crocodile, when a Devil Fruit user dies their Fruit immediately gets reincarnated, so to say, in a nearby fruit. I woke up in a food storage room, after this brat send me flying. One of the apples turned right in front of my eyes into the Dark-Dark Fruit. I was always jealous of my Captain for his abilities, so when I realized that he’d died, I decided to take the opportunity given to me and finally get rid of this nuisance.” 

“So you snuck on board and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike when he was alone. Doesn’t seem like you thought thinks through though. After all, even if or especially if you kill Straw Hat, you won’t be leaving this ship alive.” Crocodile threatened ready to shred Burgess into pieces.

“I’ll never allow that! You’re going down Burgess, here and know.” Ace surged forward, ready to deliver his famous attack, that earned him the name Fire Fist.

Burgess only grinned back and lifted his free hand to defend himself. A sudden force pressed down on him, his legs gave in beneath him and he crumbled to the floor, leaving him to Aces mercy.

Crocodile jumped in and snatched Luffy from his loosened grip and put him behind him.

Inazuma, Ivankov and Bon-Clay barged into the room attracted by the loud noises and immediately gathered around a coughing Luffy. “Oi, Mugiwara-boy are you alright?” Ivankov checked him for injuries.

“No, I’m alright don’t worry.” against Ivankovs protests, the rubber boy stepped to the front and saw Crocodile immobilizing Burgess while Ace rained fiery punches on him.

Luffy cringed and looked away from the corpse, his eyes settled on a pile of apples he’d been eating when he got attacked from the back.

‘I should have sensed him. I wasn’t paying attention. Observation Haki is definitely my weakest one.’ Luffys musings got interrupted by the shine of an apple, which started to morph in front of his eyes. ‘What’s going on?’

A Devil Fruit laid innocently in the pile of apples. It was purple like the one he’d eaten, but this one was much darker and the swirls were poking out like spikes. It was definitely the Dark-Dark Fruit, Luffy grabbed it and pushed it into a backpack, he found lying around before slinging it over his shoulder.

He joined back with the group who seemed to not have realized his absence and Inazuma and Ivankov dragged Burgess corpse out, so they could throw him overboard.

“If that wasn’t the shortest, most anticlimactic battle I’ve ever had, I don’t know what was.” With that said Crocodile left the room, followed by the others and Ivankov closed the now empty room.

Up on the deck, Crocodile was filling in the others about the incident, while Ace and Luffy were sitting on the other side of the deck, beside each other, leaning against the railing.

“I’m guessing you’re planning to not let me out off your sight anymore?”

“Of course, I’m going wherever you’re going.”

“I appreciate your worry, but you can’t protect me forever Ace. I’m the Captain of my own crew and I have nakama to back me up. You have to accept that I’m not the weak 7 year old boy anymore.”

“How can I do that when I almost lost you a minute ago? I know we chose the life of a pirate, knowing the dangers and accepting them, but to be honest... I’m scared Luffy. I don’t wanna loose another brother.”

‘Loose another brother? He must mean his crewmate that got killed by Teach. What did Ace say was his name again? It was kinda similar to Teach... oh yeah Thatch.’

“I promised Sabo to look after you. No matter how old you are, you’ll always be our troublesome little brother.” Silent tears trickled down Aces eyes and Luffy realized that he meant Sabo. Their blond brother, who was very much alive and Luffy had forgotten to tell him about it.

“Ace.... what I’m about to tell you, you won’t believe, but hear me out and try not to interrupt.”

Ace looked up confused, but nodded his head, wiping his eyes.

“When the Celestial Dragon shot Sabos ship, he didn’t die. The leader of the revolutionary army saved him. He’d lost his memories, he didn’t remember us, so he went with them. He joined the revolutionary army and I met him back in Dressrosa, where he told me all of this.... He’d regained his memories, when he’d read about your death in the newspaper.”

Ace hung his head, his face was unreadable and partially covered by the shadow of his hat.

“This isn’t funny Luffy.”

“I know it isn’t and you know I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

“So you’re telling me Sabo survived but he got Amensia and that’s why he didn’t return to us. He only remembered us recently because of my death and you met him in Dressrosa. While my execution was announced, the newspaper wouldn’t state my death without evidence. Dressrosa is in the New World and I damn well known you haven’t been there yet. What are you hiding from me Luffy?”

Ace looked into his brothers face with desperation and anguish.

“Yesterday, when I went to sleep, I was in the infirmary of my ship. We had just left Whole Cake Island and were on our way to Wano. When I woke up again, I was in Impel Down. The war hadn’t happened yet, you hadn’t died yet and two years hadn’t past either. I’m not sure what happened but somehow, someway I ... as ridiculous as it sounds, traveled back in time.”

“Let me get this straight, you traveled back in time to two years ago and the first time around I died and somehow the second time around, you found a way to prevent that? Or did we not pass the part of my death yet?”

“Wait you believe me?” Luffy asked with a hopeful voice.

Ace cringed “Well not really, but I know that you’re a really bad liar. You sweat, keep fidgeting around and your eyes look in every direction, except at the person you’re talking to. That’s why I’m not shutting down your ridiculous answer.”

Suddenly Luffy smacked the back of his head. “Ow, god damit. What was that for and why did that hurt?... Did you just fucking use haki?

“Of course, how else would I be able to hit a logia like you. Rayleigh taught me how to use all three forms, while my crew and I were taking a training break, to get stronger for the New World.”

“Rayleigh?” Ace questioned. ‘Why does that name sound so familiar?’

“But that’s beside the point, You were originally brought to marineford, because the guards reached your cell before me. So I went after you to Marineford and old man Whitebeard was already there fighting against the marines. They helped me free you and while we were running away, you decided to stay behind to fight Akainu. So of course I turned back, because I wasn’t gonna leave you behind, but all the adrenaline I had, faded away and I couldn’t move much anymore. I didn’t have my defense up and Akainu took that chance to attack. You jumped in front me and ...... his magma fist went through you. I-I couldn’t save you. You died in my arms and I couldn’t do anything.”

Ace wrapped his arms around his trembling brother, pulled him to his chest and slowly rubbed his back.

“You promised me you wouldn’t die. Why did you do that Ace? Why did you die for me? My life isn’t more important than yours.” Luffy muttered, pressing his face into his brothers chest.

Ace heard him though, “I’m sorry Luffy, I must not have thought about the consequences of my actions. I’m so sorry for being selfish and leaving you behind. Did you get away safe though? I know you obviously survived, but ...”

Luffy interrupted him, “I know what you mean. I was unconscious after that, but I heard later, that Marco, Jinbe, Crocodile and Buggy helped me escape and Torao operated on Jinbe and me.”

“Who is Torao and what do you mean bu operate? Did you get hurt?” Ace pushed Luffys face away to stare into his eyes.

“His name is Trafalgar Law, but I call him Torao. He thinks it’s because I can’t pronounce his name, but I actually just like giving people nicknames whenever I can. Shishishi. He operated on Jinbei and me because we still got hit by Akainus magma fist. Although Jinbe received most of the attack, from covering me. This is the scar I got from it.” Luffy opened his vest, revealing a gruesome burn mark stretching across his chest.

“So it was for nothing. Even in my last moments I couldn’t protect you. I really am the worst.”

“Ouch, why did you hit me again?” Ace rubbed his abused head, glowering at his little brother.

“And you call me an Idiot. As mad as I am because of your self sacrificing bullshit, I won’t accept you calling it for nothing. I would have died if I had gotten that first hit. I don’t wanna hear another depressing word from you again.”

The Straw Hat Captain entangled himself from his brothers embrace and walked away.

“Hey, Wait for me. Don’t just walk off.” Ace jumped up and followed his brother.

A smile bloomed across his face. ‘I wonder what I did to deserve such a wonderful knucklehead of a brother.’


	9. Chapter 9

“Shouldn’t they have already arrived before us? We took a detour to pick up the nurses and we still arrived here first. Did we come to the wrong Island?” Izo nervously bit into his nails and walked in a circle on the island.

“God damit, now I even ruined my manicure.” The 16th Division Commander looked at his chewed up nails with a look off regret.

“Calm down, I’m sure that we’re at the right location. Impel Down is further away than Marineford to here, so I expected to arrive earlier yoi.” Marco tried to sooth his brothers worries, but only earned a lighthearted smack on the arm and a glare.

“You couldn’t have told me that before? I was about to start ripping my hair out, out of frustration.” Izo grumbled, turning away from the First Division Commander and looking out at the sea.

His eyes widened at the sight of a marine ship heading their way. 

“Did those bastards seriously follow us?” he heard someone from the back question, everyone tensed and Marco was the one who finally answered.

“I’m guessing its Ace and the others on a hijacked ship, but don’t let you guard down, in case it isn’t yoi.”

——

“We’re almost there, the island is in sight and I can also see the Moby Dick anchored.” announced Jinbe, gaining everyone’s attention and they all gathered at the upper deck to see as well.

“I wonder if they know that we aren’t marines. After all, we didn’t take down the marine flags to prove otherwise. They might try to bomb us before we even reach them.” Inazuma pointed at the multiple marine flags flying proudly on their masts.

“Waaah, why didn’t you say that sooner? There gonna shoot us. We’re gonna dieeee.” screeched Buggy, grabbing Inazumas double colored coat and shaking him.

“Don’t touch me Clown, you’re gonna make me spill my wine.” Inazuma snapped trying to slap Buggys dismembered hands away with one hand, while holding his wine glass with the other.

“Don’t worry I got this.” Ace grinned, lighting his hands on fire.

——

“So, what are we supposed to do? Are we just gonna wait till they reach the shore?” Rakuyo stood, arms crossed in front of his chest.

Before someone could answer his question, a blinding light crossed his vision. A stream of fire shot into the sky and formed the Whitebeard logo for a whole minute, before dissipating into the air.

A cheer erupted from the crew. There was no mistaking it. They soon would be reunited with their beloved little brother. It ended up being even sooner than they expected.

Something came flying from the ship and crashed right into the surprised First Divison Commander. The breath rushed out of him, at the moment of impact and he looked up confused when he heard giggling coming from on top of him.

Ace and his little brother were both sprawled on his chest, with Ace sandwich between them. Luffy was giggling like a madman, while his older brother was reprimanding him to not “rocket himself” and others into people.

Marco rose a single brow, wondering when they planned to get off his lap. Marco cussed himself for his luck, when his other brothers decided that it would be a good moment for a group hug. He didn’t believe the Straw Hats giggling could get any louder, until grown up men started sobbing on him and cheerful laughter could be heard ringing through the island. The infectious sound only made everyone else smile and it took no one less than Whitebeard himself to convince them to let go of the brothers. Ace immediately scrambled to his feet, before running up to his Captain and kneeling in front of him. He pressed his forehead to the ground beneath, shocking everyone into silence.

“Pops, I don’t wanna annoy you with my apologies again. I thought it would be better if I thanked you instead. Thank you for accepting me in your crew, even though I tried to kill you, multiple times. Thank you for calling me your son, even though I always act like brat and only cause trouble for you. Thank you for coming after me, I promise I will never go after someone by myself or against your orders again.” Aces voice was ringing loud and clear and everyone was listening attentively with their smiles back in place.

“Enough!” boomed Whitebeards voice, making Ace look up shocked at his father. He was greeted by the sight of his father sitting crossed legged on the ground and motioning for him to come forward. “Come here and let me hug you. I have missed you my son.”

Fresh tears leaked down Aces cheeks and he crashed into his fathers chest, not caring that his reputation as the cool uncaring Pirate was crumbling.

Soon the rest of the prison escapees joined them and the celebration started. One by one, cooks started coming from the ships, carrying plates full of various foods with tantalizing smells coming of them.

In the very back, the Head Chef came with a plate full of sea king meat and set it in front of Luffy. “If you’re the Luffy that Ace was talking about, then I know for a fact that you’ll be as much off a blackhole as Ace is. Eat up to your hearts content.”

Luffy grinned up at the pompadour hair man, remembering his manner lessons from Makino, he thanked the man and started to dig in.

A second later he paused confused when he felt Aces conflicted emotions of despair, confusion and hope blooming in his chest. “....T-Thatch?” Luffy heard his trembling brothers voice.

The now named Crew member merely grinned back and said, “Did you miss me, little brother?” before he got an armful of the Fire Logia, who was asking a hundert questions per minute. Most of them could be summed up to “Why are you alive?”

“Wait, ... You thought I was dead? You think a mere stab wound would be enough to kill a Divison Commander like me?” Thatch wrapped his arms around his youngest brother, not minding the tears that were soaking his shirt.

‘Damn it’s getting embarrassing how many times I’ve cried today. I’ll be lucky if Luffy doesn’t use this against me and end up calling me a Crybaby.’

Fire Fist shook his head and gathered his thoughts back up. “People were saying that you were stabbed, had lost too much blood and that it was too late to save you. So I logically assumed that you were dead.”

“That kind of makes a lot of sense. I did loose a lot of blood, but the wound didn’t reach any of my organs, so I only needed a blood transfusion and time to heal. That’s also why I wasn’t at Marineford, Pops didn’t allow me to come. He said I had to stay at one of our territories with the nurses.” Thatch looked like a child ready to throw a tantrum because his parent didn’t give him what he wanted.

Ace barked out a laugh and the conversation continued, while they ate the feast that was prepared for them.

Luffy was stuffing his face like always, but he was in deep thought while doing so.

‘So that’s the guy Ace went to get Revenge for. Does this mean Thatch was alive this whole time in the other timeline? That would explain why his grave wasn’t here when Rayleigh and me came to visit Aces grave during my training. I also never saw the Whitebeards again after the war, so Thatch could have been with them the whole time. Argh all this thinking is making my head hurt.’ 

“Hey Lu, what are you thinking about so hard? Your head is starting to turn red and I think steam is coming out of your ears.”

At the sound of his brothers voice, Luffy returned his attention to the others and realized that Marco was scrutinizing him.

“I just remembered something I wanted to ask you Straw hat. How did you know of this island? This place is one of our most protected islands and only few of our commanders know about it yoi.”

Before Luffy could even start to explain himself, Ace jumped in and answered for him.

“Ah sorry about that. Back in Alabasta I was drunk and kinda spilled some information to him and this island was one of them. I totally forgot about it later, so when Luffy mentioned it on the speaker I was confused about it at first. It took me awhile to remember that I had told him that.” the Logia user replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Marco wasn’t fully convinced that he was telling the truth, but he didn’t see any reason for him to lie. He accepted the answer, without further questions and gave a simple nod in acknowledgement.

“Ah that reminds me, I have something that belongs to you Thatch.”

“Oh yeah and what would that be?” Thatch looked interested as Luffy threw a bag pack in his lap.

“I planned to just give it to the old man, but since you’re actually still alive, I think it would only be right if you got it.”

The Fourth Division Commander unzipped the bag and looked inside.

...

“And? What is it Thatch? Don’t leave us hanging here.”

Thatch looked up and realized that a circle had gathered around him, all of them with expectant faces.

He reached into the bag and pulled out the fruit, showing it to his brothers.

“Is that a Devil Fruit?”

“Why would he give him a Devil Fruit?”

“Wait isn’t that the one Thatch originally found?”

“Yeah it definitely is and that Traitor ate it.”

Thatch interrupted his brothers speculations and directly asked Luffy, “How did you get your hands on this? I thought Teach would have consumed it by now.”

“Shishishi he did”

“Then how is it in my hand right now?”

“After a Devil Fruit user dies, their Devil Fruit gets reformed almost immediately, by transforming the closest fruit into them. That’s what I heard and it happened in front of my eyes so... yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

“Wait, so that means Teach is dead?”

“Yep Ace, Inazuma, Ivankov, Crocodile, Jinbe and I took down his crew. None of them will ever cause anyone trouble again.”

Suddenly a bunch of Whitebeard Pirates crowded around Luffy, picked him up and repeatedly tossed him into the air and caught him again.

They chanted Luffys name with praises mixed in and Luffys delighted shrieks could be heard through the clearing, combined with everyone else’s laughter.

“So are you gonna eat it Thatch?” Ace interrupted them and everyone turned their curios expressions back to Thatch.

“Well, I’m not sure. It is a really powerful Devil Fruit and it would be a waste to not use that power, but I don’t wanna be associated with that Traitor for using his Devil Fruit.“

„It’s not his Devil Fruit Thatch, It’s yours. He merely stole it from you, you’re the real owner and that’s why I gave it back to you. There is no way anyone would compare you to Blackbeard. I think it would be super cool, if you used the power that once was used to hurt your crew, to know instead help protect them.”

Luffy was snatched from his sitting position by a grinning Thatch who wrapped his arms around him.

“Pops can we keep him?”

“Gurararara I would love to have him on my Crew, but the brat already declared that he was gonna be the next Pirate King...

... and the Pirate King can’t work under another Captain.” Luffy finished Whitebeard sentence.

“Ah bummer, I guess Ace will have to suffice.” Thatch declared pulling his youngest brother into the group hug. His annoyed “HEY!” was promptly ignored.

A few hours later, the Commanders and the Captain were sitting together with the prison escapees and sharing sake.

“Come on Straw Hat don’t you wanna drink some sake with us?”

“Stop it Rakuyo, he’s still underage.”

“It’s fine Ace, I’ve had sake before, whenever we celebrated a new crew member or had a party. I don’t like it that much though, so I only ever drank a little and gave the rest to Zoro.” Luffy grinned remembering all the times he would give Zoro his sake cup and Zoro would give a huge chunk of his share of meat in exchange.

Rakuyo ignored Aces glare and pushed the cup into Luffys hand. “Well then, drink until you don’t want anymore, no one will force you to finish it.”

“Well since we’re already here, how about we discuss what’s gonna happen from here on out yoi?” Marco gained everyones attention and Ivankov was the first to answer.

“Inazuma, Bon-Clay and I will be going to the Kambakka Kingdom. The Okamas have waited long enough for their Queen.”

“Daz Bones and I will be going into hiding for awhile, just until we’re sure the Marines won’t be sending anyone after us.” *Sigh* “Would you mind dropping us of at the next island Ivankov?” Crocodile did not like having to be so friendly with the Okama Queen, but this wasn’t the time to make enemies.

“Of course not Croco-Boy, if you want to, you can even join us all the way to Kamabakka Kingdom.”

“Hell No, over my dead body.”

“Buggy, Galdino, I could also drop you off wherever you want on the way.”

“That would be much appreciated.” said Galdino with Buggy nodding frantically in the back, ready to leave after being surrounded for hours by Whitebeard Pirates.

“Hmm, I was thinking about taking a break with my crew. Since we’re already separated, this would be a good time to train and focus on getting stronger for the New World. Going through Impel Down, I learned that I wouldn’t survive that easy in the New World and neither would my Crew. I don’t wanna put them into unnecessary danger, just because we were unprepared for the New World. I just have to find a way to get in contact with them.”

“I think I could help you with that.”

Everyone turned surprised at hearing a new voice come from the shore.

“Is that Dark King Rayleigh?”

“What’s he doing here?”

“The real question is, why is he soaking wet, did he swim here?”


	10. Chapter 10

“Rayleigh, long time no see.”

“Did that Straw Hat just great the First Mate of the Pirate King, as if he is his old friend?”

“Yep, pretty sure he did.”

“Ah Luffy I was looking for you, after you made that announcement at Marineford. Suffice to say everyone on Sabaody was quite surprised and probably pretty disappointed, when they didn’t get to see a war happen, on the den den mushi recorders.”

Rayleigh walked up the way and Luffy scooted to the side to make space for him in the circle.

“I was thinking of offering to train you in haki, but it seems you already know how to use it. I can sense how you’re controlling your Conquerors Haki. Someone without control wouldn’t have it sit calmly under his skin, ready to use any moment. Am I right to assume that you can also use the other two?”

“Aha you got me there Rayleigh. I have in no way mastered any, but I can use all three. I’m pretty sure that Conquerors Haki is my best one. I would gladly train with you though, since I’ll have time to spend for two years.”

“Wait, wait, wait, you have Conquerors Haki? Also you’re planning to take a break for two years, why that long?” Ace jumped into the conversation.

“Oh yeah, I just thought two years would be a good enough time to train and why are you so surprised that I have it? It is rare and all, but excluding me, three other people have it here.”

“Wait three people excluding you? Pops and Rayleigh are the only ones that come to my mind. Who else has it yoi?” Marco was sitting perched on his fathers shoulder, looking down at the group.

Luffy swung his head around and stared at Ace with a grin. “You didn’t know?”

Ace was unnerved by his brothers predatory grin. “Know what?”

“It’s you Ace, you’re the third one.”

It took a few seconds for Fire Fists brain to compute that sentence. “WAIT SINCE WHEN DO I HAVE KINGS HAKI????”

Everyone else was equally surprised. ”Ace never showed any signs of having it, when we were training him in Armament and Observation Haki yoi.”

“Why do you think I have it Lu?”

“It happened when we were kids. We were fighting the Bluejam Pirates at the time, because they refused to let us go even after you told him the location of our treasure. One was holding me hostage, so I bit him to free myself, but it immediately backfired on me and he cut me down. He was about to kill me, you screamed “Don’t touch Luffy” and excluding one they all fainted. I was only 7 at the time so I didn’t even know about Haki. I only realized years later, that you were the reason they all fainted.”

No one interrupted Luffys story until the end.

“What kinda scum tries to kill a 7 year old child for merely biting him.” Thatch sneered and his brothers agreed, nodding along.

“Well, I actually have a better idea now. How about I train both Luffy and Ace for up to two years. If you get bored or you think you learned enough, you can leave at anytime. This way the brothers can spend some time together and we can hide Ace for a while, until we are sure that the marines won’t actively try to hunt him. I also have an idea how to contact your crew, but we’ll talk about that later Luffy.”

Ace looked shocked at Rayleighs offer. It was pretty tempting, but he didn’t know if he could trust the Pirate Kings First Mate. ‘On the one hand, Rayleigh sailed with the Pirate King, who I have hated all my life. On the other hand, I could ask him about Roger and maybe....just maybe find out that, I’m not the son of a devil, maybe my blood father wasn’t that bad.’ Ace visibly cringed at his own thoughts and Luffy saw right through them.

“Ne, ne Ace, I think that would be pretty cool. Training like old times you and me... and sabo.” The Straw Hat Captain whispered the last part so only Ace would catch it.

Fire Fists eyes widened and a smile bloomed on his face, before suddenly turning wicked. “So how are we gonna do this? Can I just bash blondies head in and see if he remembers?”

“That’s so mean Ace, I think we can just fake your death and he’ll remember.”

“What? That’s way worse than what I offered!”

“Yes, but my way worked last time, yours could just end up making him forget more.”

“You can’t know that until you try. Don’t you get Amnesia from a head injury? So maybe you can get rid of one with another concussion.”

Everyone else was looking at them like they were crazy. Marco started to step in and diffuse the arguing pair. “I have no idea how this conversation came to be, but it sounds like you’re trying to help an amnesiac get their memories back and I’m using the word “help” lightly. Those are some god awful ideas. How about you just go meet this person and talk to them. Tell him about your memories with them and see if they are starting to recognize some of them. If it fails, you can always just bash their head like Ace planned yoi.”

“Marco! You’re supposed to be the sensible brother, don’t agree with their dumb ideas.” Haruta was shocked to hear his older brother agreeing with it.

“I meant as a last resort, nothing more. Jeez I’m not even the one who came up with it, so I don’t know what you’re getting so mad at me for yoi.”

The attention now on the argument between the two Commanders, Luffy turned and walked over to Ivankov, Ace caught on and followed him.

“Hey Ivankov you know Sabo right?”

“Mugiwara-boy how do you know about Sabo-kun?” Ivankov looked bewildered at the pair of brothers and then realized, “Wait, the amnesiac blond you mentioned was Sabo?”

“Yep, Sabo is our brother, we haven’t seen him since we were kids and a Celestial Dragon shot the boat he was sailing on. We thought he died, have been thinking that for ten years now, but I heard about someone from the revolutionary army, a certain blond that was causing trouble on marine territories and freeing slaves. I heard about this from the marines, while they were transporting me to Impel Down. The suspect had blond curly hair, wore Noble like clothes and fought with a pipe. They also mentioned the name Sabo and I have never heard of someone who fit the description of my blond brother better.”

Ace was secretly sweating, he’d started making up stuff on the spot and adding little facts he’d learned from Luffy in there, just to make it more believable.

“I see, it sounds like the marines know too much about our dear Sabo-kun, but that’s not the problem now. I could get you in contact with him before I leave the island. He deserves to remember you guys and please be gentle with him.”

Ace gave a quite sigh in relief and his little brother jumped at Ivankov to hug him.

“Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, Ivan-Chan you’re the best.”

“Did we miss out on something? What are we celebrating?” Thatch was standing behind them with a smile on his face, looking at the happy kid.

Before Ace could even think about how to explain what just happened, Rayleigh interrupted with, “I’m still waiting for an answer here? Are we training or not?”

——

The next day most of the Whitebeard Pirates woke up with massive hangovers from partying all night. They had camped out on the island and later had a big breakfast. Less than an hour later everyone had gathered aboard the ships they would leave on. Only Ace, Luffy and Jinbe had switched ships, the rest would be sailing with the marine ship they came on.

Rayleigh had left last night and swam away in the middle of the night, not even drunk from all the alcohol he had consumed. He would be waiting on Amazon Lily for their training.

Ivankov had contacted the Revolutionaries and planned a meeting with Sabo on an island nearby. Of course he wouldn’t be going there, he had a Kingdom to return to and passengers to drop off.

“Gurararara, so you have a another brother? I would love to meet him if he’s anything like you and the brat. Set sail my children, we have an island to get to.”

The next few days were spend introducing the rest of the crew members to the energetic knucklehead, who could barely remember any of them at the end of the day. He had given plenty of them nicknames though and not even the First Mate was spared from it. Luffy knew his name alright, but he preferred to call him variations of Blue Chicken or Pineapple head over Marco.

Currently, Luffy and Ace were siting on each of Whitebeards armrests of his big chair and Marco was perched on his shoulder, like always.

Both of them were telling their childhood stories of the three brothers adventures, in the dangerous woods, fighting against giant tigers and bears everyday.

“Land ahoy!” rang the voice of the lookout from the crow’s nest.

The rubber boy turned his grin at his brother.

“Hell no, Luffy we’re gonna be there soon, there is no need for you to do that.” Ace jumped down from his seat and started to sprint away from his brother.

“Oh you know I have to do it Ace, the question is do you wanna join me or should I go on ahead?” Luffy also jumped down from his seat, but made no motion to run after him.

Ace screeched to a halt and turned back with a sigh. “I really can’t let you out of my sight, you’ll probably find a way to cause trouble the second you land.”

“Yosh, lets go. Gomu Gomu no... Rocket.”


	11. Chapter 11

Ace stood up, dusting the sand of his hat and put it back on its rightful place. Behind him his little brother did much the same. “Where did Ivankov say he planned the meeting?”

“He mentioned something about a forest, so the meeting would be discreet. I say we just go in and I could probably just sense his presence, if he’s already here.”

No further words needed to be said, as the duo set out to find their amnesiac brother.

They had been walking for hours now through a dense forest. Ace had already contacted Marco to tell him they were fine and still searching for Sabo. The Whitebeards had docked and were restocking in the meantime.

“I love the forest and all but running around for hours is starting to get old. Did you still not pick up his presence Lu?”

The pair had stopped next to a tree and were eating oranges of it.

Luffy flicked away the orange peel before popping a slice into his mouth. “Mhmm, no...still no sign of him...I wonder if...he is hiding his presence.” He was chewing in the middle of talking, but he’d done it so often his words actually came out legible. This was an ability only Luffy and Zoro possessed, with Zoro being able to talk around the hilt of his sword.

“Whatever lets get going, I don’t wanna waste anymore of my time here.” Ace stood up and started walking in a random direction. A hand suddenly grabbed his wirst and he turned around, following the length of the stretched arm back to its owner. “What is it Lu? Why did ...”

“Shhhhh” Luffy motioned him to quiet down with his other hand and started walking in the opposite direction Ace was gonna go to. His hand was still wrapped around Aces wrist, so he pulled him along.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the edge of a clearing, hiding behind a tree and some bushes. The older of the duo stretched his head out to see what the younger one was looking at.

There in the middle of the open field. Someone was sitting on a boulder with their back turned to them. He was dressed like a noble, blond wavy hair was poking out beneath his top hat and a pipe was laying next to him.

The next second his hand wrapped around the pipe and he swung around, standing in a defensive position on the bolder. His shoulders were tense, but his face looked calm and composed.

“I know you’re there, stop hiding and show your face.” The revolutionary practically ordered.

Ace didn’t see any reason in hiding, so he stepped through the bushes and started walking to his blond brother. He came to a stop about a foot away and stared up at him.

“You... You’re Fire Fist Ace right? Why are you here and why were you hiding?” Sabo pointed his staff at him daring him to step closer.

Ace merely grinned up at him. “Sabo, wanna go hunt something?”

“Eh?” Sabo was caught of guard by the seemingly random question.

“I really feel like having some bear meat, but we’ll have to at least catch two to satisfy Luffys hunger, or else he’ll steal from our share.”

Ace turned his back to him and Sabo widened his eyes, when he realized that he had pretty much left his back open for attacks. ‘Does he think he’s strong enough to be able to defend against my attack or does he actually trust me to not attack him?’ 

“Come on, slowpoke I’m hungry.” Sabo contemplated only for a second, before he ran after him.

A few minutes of searching and they came across a fairly big grizzly bear. It immediately attacked them, by swiping at them with his scarp claws. Ace side stepped the paw, before striking it with a roundhouse kick to the side. He didn’t use his Devil Fruit, merely his hand to hand combat.

Sabo came next, he swiped his hind leg, making the animal crumble to the ground and followed it up with a strike to its head.

Two more bears suddenly showed up, highly likely attracted by the commotion they were causing.

Without realizing it, Sabo started working in tandem with Ace, he covered his back and Ace covered his.

“Ace, Sabo, you guys never wait for me. I can fight too, my punches are as strong as pistols.” A new voice rang out through the clearing and Sabo got distracted by it for a second. That mistake would have cost him his head if it wasn’t for Luffy.

“Gomu gomu no ...Pistol” a fist flew past his head and crashed into the maul of the bear. “Stupid bear, you can’t bite Sabos head off.”

‘What’s going on here? Who is this new guy? Wait, why did I follow a Whitebeard Pirate in the first place?’

“Lu, nice of you to join us, because someone is lagging behind. I guess Sabo is now the weakest brother.” Ace taunted while causally defending against two wild animals.

“What? I’m not the weakest you asshole! I’ll make you eat those words.” The brother comment went in through one ear and left right through the other. The only thing his mind registered was being called weak.

Luffy filled the empty spot in the group, which Sabo didn’t even realize existed. Soon all three grizzly bear lay defeated at their feet. Ace pulled out his dagger and started cutting apart the first one.

“Ne Ace when is it gonna be ready? I’m hungry can you go any faster?”

“Jeez Luffy get off my back, or you won’t get shit to eat.” Ace snapped. 

Sabo unconsciously stepped in and retorted back, “Hey don’t snap at him like that, he’s just hungry.”

“Well then he can just cook for all I care.”

“You know he can’t do that, he’ll mess up somehow, like he always does.”

“Oh, and how do you know that?”

“What do you mean? Of course I know my own bro...” Sabo stopped before he could finish his own sentence. ‘What was I gonna say? Brother, but why? Who are these two and what do they want from me?’

“We are so lucky that shitty gramps hasn’t visited us in a long time, his fist of love really hurts.” Ace said, rubbing a non existent bump on his head.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna hear him talk about us becoming Marines again. It’s getting pretty old at this point, we are pirates damn it.” Luffy declared proudly.

“Yes, just like we promised so long ago. We’re gonna leave when we’re 17, sail the seas free, without any regrets...” 

“...and even if we are on different crews, we’ll always be brothers.” Luffy finished the sentence Ace had started and both looked at Sabo to see, if he had any reaction to their words.

“Alright, enough! I don’t know what you guys are trying to accomplish here, but it’s seriously starting to freak me out.” Sabo snapped.

*Sigh* “I knew that this wouldn’t be enough, I’m going back to my original plan Lu.” With that said, Ace immediately swung a punch at the Revolutionary’s head.

A pipe, reinforced with armament haki, blocked it and he immediately jumped back to put some distance between his attacker.

“Come back Sabo, I promise it won’t hurt ...too much. This is for your own good.”

“The hell it is, stay away or I’ll be the one to bash your head in, Whitebeard Pirate.” sneered Sabo.

Aces eyes narrowed in a sign of challenge and the next moment they were at each other throats. Ace wasn’t using his Devil Fruit and Sabos staff lay discarded on the side.

Hats flew off, bodies rolled on the ground, punches and kicks were being delivered and partially defended against from both sides.

Meanwhile Luffy was cutting up their forgotten prays, he wasn’t a cook in any way, but he could prepare some meat.

By the time Luffy was finished cutting all the meat and cooking it over the fire, he had already consumed half a bear. Sabo and Ace were both panting exhausted on the ground, covered in a few bruises, with no clear winner.

Sabo sat up and suddenly a bone with meat was trusted into his hands and he looked up, to see that the other two were already devouring piles of meat.

He sniffed it and then reluctantly took a small bite to see if it tasted off. When nothing happened he concluded that it probably wasn’t poisoned and he was too hungry to pass up this potentially deadly meal.

The three of them sat quietly while eating their food. Sabo didn’t let either of them out of his sight the whole time.

“Hey what would you do if the Pirate King had a son?”

“Oh so we’re doing that again?” 

“Shut it Lu. Blondie I’m waiting for an answer.” Ace stared into his brothers eyes impatient.

Sabo was once again stunned by the randomness of his question and the situation in general. “The Pirate Kings son? Am I supposed to do something?”

“Would you hate him?”

“Why should I? Did he do something bad to me?” Sabos eyes widened. “Is that it, I’m supposed to know his son right? I lost my memories wenn I was 10 years old, so if I met him before that, than I don’t remember.”

“Yeah you did and I’m really disappointed you forgot about me Sabo.”

“About you... you’re... the Pirate Kings son.” It wasn’t a question but more like a statement. “Am I right to guess that you asked me this dumb question before?”

Luffy burst out laughing, while Aces face turned red. “It’s not a dumb question asshole.”

“Why would I hate you for being the Pirate Kings son? That’s not your fault, children can’t choose the parents they are born to.” Sabo couldn’t help himself and smiled back at seeing Luffys infectious smile.

“Says mister “I’m sorry for being born a noble”, you didn’t choose your shitty noble parents either and you still apologized to us when we found out about them.”

...

“Sabo?”

“Sabo! Are you alright?”

Ace jumped from his seat and ran to Sabos side, who was holding his head and groaning in pain.

Luffy was next to him in a second. “No way, That’s what triggered his memories, his parents?”

“I’m guessing that, that was just the last missing piece, and the memories are just crashing into him now.” Ace cradled his brothers head in his arms and put it on his lap.

Luffy grabbed his hand and squeezed it in reassurance. “We’re here Sabo, don’t worry, you can just sleep now.”

At hearing those words, Sabo gave up the struggle and let the darkness take him. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he could trust these two. It’s not like he had much of a choice either way.


	12. Chapter 12

“How long does it take for them to find one brat?” Rakuyo grumbled.

“Do you think something went wrong? Maybe their brother is actually evil and he kidnapped them.” Haruta leaned against the railing, looking worriedly out at the island.

“Evil? We’re talking about Ace and Luffys brother, he must be a knucklehead just like them.”

“Rakuyo you don’t understand, he lost his memories, who knows what the Revolutionaries taught him. He could be some kinda merciless assassin.”

Rakuyo burst into laughter. “I should take your books away, you have some crazy imagination.”

“Hey guys, it’s Ace and his brothers.” announced a random crew member.

The next second, the 12th Divison Commander was running down the ramp.

“Wait Haruta, don’t do something stupid.” Rakuyo shouted after, but his voice didn’t reach him.

Haruta stopped at the end of the ramp, in front of the trio.

Ace looked up confused by the welcome committee. When suddenly arms reached past his head, grabbed Sabo by the coat and shook him.

“Tell me the truth, who’s side are you on? Are you evil?”

“Haruta, what the hell? He isn’t evil, but he sure as hell is unconscious. Can’t you tell by the fact I’m carrying him?”

A blue Phoenix flew down and landed next to the group, before turning back to his human form.

He grabbed the 12th Divison Commander by the shoulder and pulled him back. “Forgive him yoi, he had way too much alcohol. He gets really paranoid about the most random stuff, when he is drunk. I put the sake on the highest shelf and he still got his hands on it. I’m suspecting Thatch, but I’m not sure yoi.”

“Did you just call me short, with that high shelf remark?” Haruta stared at his older brother suspiciously.

Marco put his hand to his heart and looked indignant. “Me? Never! You’re the tallest person on the crew. By the way, I think I smelled Thatch baking some strawberry cheesecake. You should go get so...”

Before Marco could finish his sentence, Haruta had disappeared into thin air and Luffy was nowhere in sight either.

*Sigh* “I should have expected that to happen... Is he alright?” Marco turned his attention to his youngest brother.

“Huh? Oh yeah, he’s just unconscious, because his brain is trying to bring back his lost memories. At least I think that’s what’s going on.” Ace started walking back up the plank, carrying an unconscious Sabo on his back.

When he reached the deck he came across Luffy and Haruta having small talk while eating strawberry cheesecake.

Ace looked surprised at the Phoenix, “I thought you made that up to distract him?!?!”

Marco chuckled, “I wouldn’t dare lie to him about that. He is already dangerous enough as he is, but drunk he is someone you don’t wanna mess with.”

“Huh, I never knew that site of him. I’m just gonna bring Sabo to my room to rest. I’ll be right back, don’t let Luffy eat all the desert.” Ace playfully said and started walking into the direction of his room.

“Puru puru puru”

“What is that?” Ace stopped and realized it was the sound of a den den mushi ringing and it was coming from close by, more specifically, from Sabo.

An arm streched out passed him and reached into Sabos coat pocket. Luffy retracted his hand and answered the call.

“Hi” was his simple answer.

“Sabo, where the hell are you? You should have called me an hour ago, but here we are again, with me being the one calling. I’ve been worried sick, I thought something might have happened to you, like getting kidnapped or something.”

“Oh, but that is what happened, we kidnapped him!” Luffy seriously announced, Haruta had to muffle his laughter, while Ace just stared shocked at him.

“WHAT? Who the hell is this? What do you want from Sabo?” came back an enraged female voice.

“Hi, this is the 12th Divison Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. We don’t want something from him per say, what we want is him in generell.” Haruta added in.

“Yep, sorry, but we’ll be keeping him for a while. Don’t worry no harm will come to him, at least no more than he already got.” Luffy said and ended the call, after hearing enraged curses from the other end.

“I thought we were lucky enough to avoid a war against the Marines and now we have the fucking Revolutionary Army after our ass. I’m never giving you sake again Haruta.” Thach grumbled clearing the dessert plates away.

“So it was you! I knew it yoi.” Marco pointed an accusing finger at the Head Chef. 

“I don’t think this is the time to be arguing about such trivial matter Marco. We should figure out what to do, since we practically kidnapped a Revolutionary Army member. Who knows how high of a position that boy is.” Jinbe stepped up next to Marco.

“Shishishi, Sabo is the Chief of Staff, the Second in Command.”

Jinbe took a look at Luffys grinning face and turned around. “I’m gonna take a swim.”

Luffy jumped up on Jinbes back, wrapped his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist. It had been too long since he had spend some time with one of his nakama and Luffy still felt awful for leaving his newest one back in Big Moms territory.

“Let me come with you Jinbe, I wanna swim too.”

“But... you’re a hammer.” Jinbe was confused, was this boy for real?

“Yeah and you’re fishman, it balances it out. Come on, I won’t drown, I promise.”

“That’s not how that works, but I guess we can go into the shallow parts of the water.” Jinbe sighed in defeat, walking off the plank.

“Wuuhuu, you’re the best Jinbe.”

——

The door to his office swung open and crashed into the wall, leaving a dent.

“Nice of you to knock Koala.” Dragon sarcastically remarked, looking up from his paper work.

“Dragon-san, I’m sorry for being disrespectful like this, but we have a problem.” Koala was trembling, while she took a seat in a chair across from his desk.

Dragon frowned and put down his pen, to focus his full attention on the young woman in front of him. “Which would be?”

“thewhitebeardpirateskidnappedsabo.” 

“Say that again, but this time slower and more comprehensible please.”

Koala took a deep breath, before starting from the beginning. “I called Sabo to question why he hadn’t gotten in touch with us, after his meeting with Ivankov. Then someone picked up, who definitely wasn’t our blonde, I’m pretty sure two voices were speaking. One introduced himself as the 12th Divison Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and .... they said that they had kidnapped Sabo.”

...

“You’re kidding right? The Whitebeard Pirates kidnapping our Chief of Staff?” Dragon didn’t understand the reason behind such an action. ‘What do the Whitebeards want with a Revolutionary?’

“I wish I was, I don’t get it either. What would a Yonko crew want with our Sabo?” Koala unknowingly repeated her leaders thoughts.

“Let’s try to gather some more info before we call them again. They might want something in exchange for him. We have to be ready for any possible negotiation arrangement.”

“Roger, I’m on it” Koala shot from her seat and left the room swinging the door shut behind her.

Dragon looked down at the newspaper from a few days ago, that he still had laying on his table.

On the front page it read, “Mugiwara no Luffy frees his brother, Fire Fist Ace, hours before his set execution time.”

Beneath it, a whole article was written explaining all the happenings of that day. A picture was included of Luffy and Ace, standing on the shore of an unidentified island. Neither was facing the camera, it looked like they weren’t aware of their picture being taken, but Dragon knew better.

‘They are aware of their photographer, I can tell from their face expressions. Luffy is trying to send someone a message, possibly his crew.’

3D2Y was written on the Rubber Captains arm, with 3D crossed out. No source for the picture was listed below it.

Dragon rubbed his forehead, he could feel a headache growing, ‘I can’t risk going into war with the Whitebeard Pirates, when Luffys sworn brother is on that crew. I rather not make an enemy with my own son, but if it comes down to it, I will personally go to pick up my missing subordinate.’

Dragon stood up from his seat, he had a lot of thinking and planning to do, but first he needed a cup of coffee and some food to sustain his energy.

‘Just be alright Sabo, we’ll come get you soon.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just remembered to ask... am I supposed to tag something or put a warning for cursing? If yes... how or what?


	13. Chapter 13

Blue eyes lazily opened, blinked a few times to readjust to the brightness and finally fully awake, they surveyed the room.

The room didn’t seem familiar to him, panic gripped his heart and he tried to sit up on the bed, he was currently laying on. The arms that were wrapped around him, prevented him from doing such and they certainly didn’t help his little panic attack.

He frantically tried to free himself when, “Stop moving around so much, I’m gonna fall of the bed.” stopped him in his tracks.

Sabo whipped his head to the left and stared right into the face of his freckled brother.

“Ace...” he whispered and his heartbeat slowed down considerably before reaching his normal steady rhythm.

Silent tears streamed down Sabos face, he smiled and finally freeing his arms, he wrapped Ace into his embrace.

Ace stilled for a second, surprised, before tightening his arms, which were already around Sabo from the beginning.

They stayed like that for a full minute before letting each other go, but Sabo still weirdly felt like he had something wrapped around him.

He turned his head to the right and the sight that greeted him, was his younger brother snuggled into his back and snoring softly.

Sabo softly shook him awake and murmured, “Come on Lu, wake up, or else you’ll miss breakfast.”

Luffy shot up the next second, lost his balance and crashed to the floor, all while not letting go of his blond brother.

Ace burst out laughing, while Sabo was shaking Luffy back and forth, none too gently this time.

“You idiot. Next time let go of me first, before you go crashing to the floor.”

“Ah sorry, but you said I’d miss breakfast so I panicked.”

*Sigh* “Alright, I’ll admit that one was my fault.”

They both stood up from the floor and Sabo located his top hat sitting on a dresser.

He placed it on his head and turned his attention back to Ace when he questioned, “Soooo... do you remember everything now or do you still need that hit to your head.”

His fist was already raised as if he was planning to punch him either way.

“Yes I’m pretty sure I have all my memories back, though I’m surprised I even got it back, considering the horrible way you guys tried to kickstart them.” Sabo nonchalantly straightened his ruffled clothes.

“Be glad that I didn’t immediately just bash your head in. Instead we opted to try and reenact some childhood memories. I was pretty surprised when you actually followed me on my impromptu hunting session.”

“I thought we could have just faked Aces death and that would have returned your memories for sure. I mean it worked last time, but Mister”I’ll bash his head in”, thought it was too cruel.” Luffy turned his judging eyes to his raven haired brother.

“Oh so you’re gonna tell him that too?” Ace didn’t even bother to dispute Luffys claims, after all he had just offered to punch Sabo a second ago.

“First of all, that really is cruel Lu, I would have preferred getting punched by my brother, than hear about his death, be it fake or not...” Sabo ignored Aces cheer and continued, “and what do you mean it worked last time?”

“Well the thing is...

A few minutes went by with Luffy explaining everything that happened since he woke up in Impel Down and what they changed from the previous timeline.

“That’s a lot to take in, but it does explain how you would know that I was still alive and how you found me in the first place.” Sabo was surprisingly accepting. Much like Ace, he knew Luffy was a really bad liar and he had no reason to make this up in the first place.

“Good thing you avoided the whole war and your bloodline being revealed. I mean that for both of you, by the way.” Sabo continued.

“Oh yeah speaking of dangerous and wanted fathers, Dragon might be visiting us soon.”

Sabo threw him a questioning look.

“Someone called your den den mushi while you were unconscious and Luffy picked up the call. I don’t know who it was, but the voice sounded distinctly female and she was worried and pissed off. Luffy straight up told her that we kidnapped you and then ended the call.”

The Revolutionary turned accusing eyes at his younger brother. “You did not fucking tell Koala that you kidnapped me!”

“No, I totally did. We took you while you were unconscious, and since you weren’t awake when we took you, you couldn’t agree to it. Taking someone against their will or permission is kidnapping right?” Luffy questioned with the most innocent look on his face as if he hadn’t caused a big misunderstanding.

“He is kinda right now that I think about it.” Ace took on a thinking position, scratching his imaginary beard.

“No he isn’t and don’t you agree with him you dumbass. Where is my den den mushi? I need to call Koala and tell her I’m okey, before she goes and tells Dragon.”

Ace looked at Luffy since he was the one who had it last.

“...I don’t know. I left it up on the deck before going swimming with Jinbe.”

“Swimming?” The Chief of Staff was confused how Luffy, as a Devil Fruit user, went swimming.

“She probably told him already. It has been three days since the call.” Ace brought his brothers thoughts to a screeching halt. 

“You mean to tell me that I’ve been asleep for three days? Oh god, Koala is gonna kill me when she finds out I worried her for nothing. I can’t even contact them since I don’t have my den den mushi.”

Sabo was walking around the room, worried for all the unintentional and indirect trouble he had caused.

Ace just watched from his seat on the bed wondering why Sabo didn’t just use one of their den den mushi to call. The reason the Whitebeard Pirates themselves hadn’t done that yet, was because they didn’t have their number, but Sabo should know it, since he is a member of that Army.

‘This is way too entertaining to watch. I’ll just let him worry for a while longer, before I tell him that he’s an idiot for not just using one of our den den mushis.’

——

Up on the deck Marco, Thatch and Haruta where standing in front of their Captain, with Haruta sporting a gloomy look.

“Cheer up Haruta, it’s not that bad. You were drunk so it wasn’t intentional.” Thatch put his arm on his younger brothers shoulder to try to console him.

“What do you mean it’s not that bad, of course it is. Luffy said we kidnapped a member of the Revolutionary Army and I agreed and even stated that I’m a Whitebeard Pirate. It’s been three days since and I lost the den den mushi, so they can’t even contact us. They are probably preparing to fight us. I could have, no, I should have prevented this.”

“My son, you are being too harsh on yourself. If there is anyone to blame it’s Thatch for providing you with alcohol.”

Whitebeard continued, acting like he didn’t hear the indignant squeak of protest from the Fourth Divison Commander. “Let the Revolutionary Army come, we’ll explain the situation and if they wanna fight....We Will Fight.”

“Speak of the Devil and he shall come, yoi.” Marco said turning his eyes to the see.

A pretty big ship, but considerably smaller than the moby dick was approaching them. A body of a Dragon was wrapped around the ship on both sides and connected to a single head at the front. The flag of the Revolutionary Army was proudly waving in the wind, not a care in the world that it would potentially grab the attention of the Marines.

Neither ship attacked each other, it seemed like they didn’t wanna be the one who started the fight.

The confrontation wouldn’t start until either ship reached the other.

——

“I can’t believe that we are openly confronting the Whitebeard Pirates like this, but it’s not like they gave us much choice.” Hack stood at the helm with Koala and their Leader next to him.

“I’m sorry, I tried, but I couldn’t find any information on why they would kidnap one of us or what they would possibly want in exchange. They have everything they need, tons of crew members, a lot of territories under them and so much wealth that I’d be surprised if they ever run out of money. They only think I could come up with, is that maybe they want information about a specific topic or maybe the Marines?” Koala reported dutifully.

“It’s weird that they didn’t pick up our calls, they might not wanna negotiate at all.” Dragon was standing with his arms crossed and his face unreadable.

“It’s good that you called us Dragon-san. We wouldn’t wanna miss this meeting for the world.” Belo Betty was standing with her three fellow commanders, Morley, Lindbergh and Karasu.

Lindbergh grinned “So where is our last commander? Won’t the Okama Queen be joining us?”

“We decided to leave Ivankov out off this. Since he just came out off prison, we preferred to let him have his freedom, before plunging him into a fight.” Koala tensed and addressed the whole group, “Get ready, we’ll reach them in a minute.”

The wind granma came to a stop next to the moby dick. A plank got set between the ships and Dragon was the first one to step on it.

He didn’t move any further before asking, “Permission to come aboard?”

His voice rang loud and clear through the tense silence. Whitebeard was sitting in his seat, surrounded by several of his sons, who were ready to attack or defend their family.

The Captain answered with a simple “granted.”

Dragon crossed the plank accompanied by Koala and Hack. The rest of the Revolutionary Army stayed behind on their ship. They would only jump in if it came down to a fight.

The group of three came to a stop in front of Whitebeard. Dragon stared up at the giant sized man with not a single drop of fear or intimidation in his eyes. Edward had not expected anything less from someone who was called the most wanted man alive.


	14. Chapter 14

Dragon was the one to start the conversation, “Whitebeard, you have one of my men in your custody and we are ready to negotiate. I would like to avoid any fighting if possible.”

Whitebeard glanced at the Revolutionary Army, waiting ready for battle and turned his stare back to their Leader. “It sure does look like you are ready for one though. Also, what do you mean with negotiate? Did you bring something that you can give me in exchange for your men?”

Dragon didn’t waver under Whitebeards heavy stare. “I sadly don’t have anything physical to give you, I can only offer you information we have gathered over the years.”

“So if I don’t want your information, you’ll have nothing else to offer. Does that mean you’ll attack us or will you simply retreat brat.” 

Marcos brow rose at his Captains words. ‘Is he trying to provoke him, yoi?’ He took a look at his face before a smirk pulled up on his own. ‘I see,... he sure is enjoying himself, yoi.’

Dragon gritted his teeth for a second but answered calmly, “If a fight is want you want, it is what you’ll get. We are not leaving without my Chief of Staff!”

A gust of wind suddenly swept through the air and dark clouds appeared on the sky.

Edward Newgate stood up from his seat and slammed his bisento to the deck in retaliation.

Dragon prepared to give the signal to attack, before he froze at hearing Whitebeards booming laughter.

“Gurararara, you cheeky brat. There is no need to get riled up, I was just interested if my sons brother was that important to you, to fight over.”

Dragon had always been a composed man whose expression never faltered in any situation. But this, this was too much even for him. His eyes widened, but before he could answer, Koala interrupted.

“Of course Sabo is impor... wait, your sons brother?” Koala stuttered.

As the First Mate, Marco took it upon himself to clear the misunderstanding.

“Yes, turns out Ace, Sabo and Luffy swore brotherhood about a decade ago. Since Sabo was amnesiac, the brothers decided to help kickstart his memories. I’m guessing you’re the one who called three days ago? Luffy and Haruta answered that call. Sorry for their rude answers, Haruta was just drunk and Luffy... well he is just weird to beginn with, yoi.”

“Then why didn’t you pick up our calls we made to Sabos den den mushi?” Hack asked this time, not even surprised at the news, unlike his female coworker.

Haruta stepped up and shyly raised his hand. “That was my mistake, I misplaced the den den mushi somewhere, so we couldn’t possibly pick up your call.”

Hack massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “I knew we should have just tried to find their number and call them directly.”

Footsteps could be hear approaching the group and Luffy suddenly emerged from the lower deck. He was looking around, curious and he stopped when his eyes landed on Dragon.

Luffy simply walked the whole way up to him, stopped and started looking him up and down. Everyone stood in silence wondering what the rubber-boy was gonna do next.

“Hi, you’re my father right?” Luffy grinned up at him.

Dragon rose his brow, but answered without hesitation, “That’s right, you’re my son.”

“EEEEHHHHHH” 

“WHAT?”

“FATHER?”

Both the Whitebeards and the Revolutionaries were equally shocked by the nonchalant reveal.

Ace suddenly appeared behind Luffy and slapped him over the head. “You idiot, don’t just announce that you’re the son of the most wanted man to everyone.”

Luffy cradled his head and gave Ace a kicked puppy look. “But I already declared war on the government when we burned down their flag in Enies Lobby and I punched a Celestial Dragon. I don’t think this can make it any worse.”

“Still this is between us now, no one better repeat what they heard here, or else.” Ace addressed both groups, not only threatening the Revolutionaries, but also his own crew.

Sabo was the last one to join the group and the moment he appeared, Koala grabbed and pulled him by his ear.

“Ow ow ow, Koala please have mercy on me.... Wait, are you crying?”

Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she started bawling, before Sabo wrapped his arms around her.

“Ahhh, I’m sorry for worrying you, please don’t cry.” Sabo was internally panicking, he was never good at consoling people.

“Alright, I’m okey, just always call me back no matter what happens.” Koala freed herself and wiped her tears with the handkerchief Sabo offered her.

“Yes, of course I will.” Sabo couldn’t help but smile down at her reddened cheeks.

“Ohhhhh so that’s how it is.” Ace grinned devilishly at his brother.

Sabo starred confused back and it took a while, before his brain could figure out what Ace was trying to insinuate. So when he figured it out, he blushed deep red.

“It... It’s not like that, don’t go jumping to conclusions, asshole.” Sabo shoved his brother off, while Koala stared confused at the pair.

“It’s good to see you’re fine Sabo, does that mean you have all your memories back?” Dragon looked at his right hand man with his usual expressionless face, but Sabo knew him long enough to see the worry hidden beneath it.

“Yes Dragon-san, I’m completely fine and have all my memories back.”

“Ah, I just remembered something Sabo. Ace and me are gonna be training with Rayleigh for up to two years. He’s gonna help us further strengthen our haki. Would you like to join us? You can leave at any time, if you have any missions, but stay with us for a while, please.” Luffy used his ultimate puppy dog eyes which Sabo definitely could not resist.

“I would love to, but I’d need some permission first.” Sabo threw a glance at his Leader.

“I don’t mind you taking off time to train. Especially if you’re gonna return to us stronger than before. Just keep a den den mushi on you at all time, so we can contact you in case of emergency.”

“Yes! Thank you dad.” Luffy grinned, grabbed both his brothers arms and dragged them to the kitchen, announcing that he wanted food.

A small and barely noticeable smile pulled at Dragons lips, when Luffy called him dad.

“Ehem, Since you’re not occupied anymore, we have some matters we would like to discuss with you, yoi.” Marco interrupted Dragons daydreaming.

Dragon simply nod his head in acknowledgement, to show he was paying attention.

Whitebeards deep voice echoed through the chatter of the crew, “We would like to offer an alliance between us. We had time to talk this over the last three days and we thought it would work in both of our favor, if we joined forces to protect our territories and members.”

Dragon took a few seconds to think before giving him his answer, “We are definitely not prepared for such an offer. While I may be the leader and I see no problem with the proposal, I still need to talk this over with my Commanders.”

“We expected that, we’ll be anchoring at the closest island for about two days, before we set sail again. If your Commanders agree, you can find us there and we can talk about the detail and see if an alliance is possible, yoi.” Marco finished his word, turned around and left. He was mumbling about checking on the three brothers, to make sure they don’t cause trouble while unattended.

The moment Marco opened the door to the kitchen, a cherry pie came flying straight to his face. Only his observation haki saved him the last second and he was able to dodge it. Thatch who had followed after him wasn’t nearly as lucky.

“God damit you brats, Ace how many times have I told you to stop throwing food fights? It’s damn disrespectful to waste food.” Thatch barged in with cherry filling dripping from his face and an absolutely furious expression on his face. He looked like a serial killer, who had just finished of his last kill and had his remains splattered on his face.

Turns out, Luffy didn’t like cherry pie, so he just decided to throw it away. He ended up soon apologizing, because he forgot he wasn’t supposed to be wasting food. “Sanji would kill me if he heard what I did.” Luffy shuddered.

“Alright, you three clean up, we’ll be sailing to the nearest island and anchoring there for two days, yoi.”

Marco kept the boys company, while they cleaned up the mess they made. Thatch left soon afterwards to wash his face and catch up on the paperwork he missed while on bedrest.

Two days later, the Whitebeard Pirates were preparing to leave the island they were currently docked at. Belo Betty stepped onto ship and got immediately surrounded by the Whitebeard Pirates. Instead of attacking her, multiple of them whistled and catcalled her. The Commander ignored them and walked straight up to Whitebeard, who was sitting on his chair like always. She took quick strides, while her skirt fluttered behind her, her jacket never moved to expose her barely covered breast, like it was stuck to her chest.

She puffed from her cigarette, took off her sunglasses and addressed Whitebeard himself, “I’m send on behalf of the Revolutionary Army to further discuss our possible alliance. My Leader has left me in charge and I will be making the final decision today after after discussion.”

A full hour past, talking about the details and responsibilities of both groups. Belo agreed to the alliance and they hatched a quick plan to announce it on the news. The Marines would have to think twice before trying to execute another Whitebeard Pirate or attack either of their territories. The combined force of the Revolutionary Army and the Whitebeard Pirates wasn’t something you wanted to mess with.


	15. Chapter 15

“Are you sure you three will be alright on your own? Pops said we can take you guys all the way to Amazon Lily. The calm belt is really dangerous and you want to sail in it with this tiny boat?” Thatch said looking worriedly at the fishing boat that could fit up to five people, but would only be enough for the three of them. Luffy had filled the rest of the space with food that would normally feed twenty people, but would only be enough for the three blackholes.

The Whitebeard Pirates had anchored close to the calm belt, since the three had insisted that there was no need to sail them all the way to their destination.

“It’s alright Thatchy, thank you for worrying about us, but I think it would be better if I didn’t bring a ship full of hundreds of men to the island of women.”

Several crew members booed at hearing Luffys words and started sulking in the corners.

“Thank you for taking care of me the last week, I’ll fish these two from the ocean if they fall in and I’ll navigate so we don’t get lost.” Sabo took his hat off and bowed to the crew.

“I tinkered with the ship a little so now it works with my devil fruit. We won’t need any wind either way.” Ace stated proudly, his arms lighting on fire.

Luffy chimed in next with, “And I’ll tame all the sea kings with my Kings Haki, so they can’t attack us.”

“Wait, you can do that with Kings Haki? Hell yeah, I’m so ready to learn that.” Ace cheered, the fire on his arms blazed.

“Calm Down there, yoi. You’re gonna burn part of the ship down... again.” Marco warned approaching the group.

“Haha, sorry.” Ace apologized, sheepishly, before extinguishing his arms.

“Here are your den den mushis, our number and the number of the Revolutionary Army is saved in there. Don’t loose it.” Marco gave Ace a red one, Sabo a blue one and Luffy a yellow one.

“Yes, call us whenever you want. We’ll miss you and I mean all three of you.” Thatch grinned and suddenly he had three boys wrapped around him.

“Why am I included in this random group hug, yoi?”

“Because I like you too Blue Chicken.” Luffy grinned stretching his arms, so he could envelop the whole group.

The sound of Marcos annoyed grumbling got lost in the sea of laughter. The three soon departed after Ace went to say goodbye to his pops.

Their journey to Amazon Lily was pretty uneventful, except for when Luffy decided that the ship wasn’t going fast enough, so he forced a seaking to pull their ship.

When they reached the island, Luffy had a tearful farewell with the seaking, he had befriended on the way. Meanwhile, his older brothers looked confused, they didn’t know seakings could look sad.

“Ah there you are, you guys sure took your time getting here.” Rayleigh stepped forward through the forest.

Luffys sad face completely switched to happiness and ran up to greet the Dark King. “Hi Rayleigh, let me introduce you, this is my other older brother Sabo.”

Rayleigh rose his brow in wonder, “Another brother? And it’s the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army?”

Sabo reached his hand to shake the older mans in greeting. “Yes, but how did you know that?”

Rayleigh smiled and accepted his handshake. “I have my ways, let’s just say the Revolutionary Army isn’t the only one good at gathering information.”

The Dark King gave all three a look over before nodding his head. “Three students are two more than I originally calculated, but I’m not complaining in the slightest. You can challenge each other so none off you can slack off.”

“Challenge huh? Just like old times.” Ace grinned, remembering their childhood and how Luffy always lost against them.

‘Jeez, I guess that will change now. He definitely is way stronger than he was when I left, especially since he is two years from the future. I wonder if Sabo is stronger than me?’

Ace shot the blond a predatory grin and before Sabo could ask what the hell was going through his head this time, he got interrupted.

“Luffy-kun, you’re back.” Hancock came strolling in, accompanied by a group of Kuja Warriors, who were pulling a big carriage filled with food behind them.

“I brought you some food my love... I mean Luffy-kun.” The Pirate Empress blushed at her blunder.

“Hancock I missed you, I didn’t even get to thank you properly for sneaking me into Impel Down. I couldn’t have saved my brother without you.” Luffy beamed at her, for once actually saying her name right.

“It was no problem at all.” The red on Hancocks face only deepened at hearing his words.

Sabo shot Ace a look, wondering if he was the only one confused by the pairs behavior. Ace merely shrugged back, not even questioning why the most beautiful woman in the world was obviously in love with their little brother.

“Ah, by the way, this is Sabo, he is our other brother.” Luffy wrapped his arm around his blond brothers shoulders and pulled him forward.

‘Brother? Oh no, I need to make a good impression on him.’

“Ah nice to meet you. Both your brothers can eat as well of course.” Hancock hoped food was enough to bribe both of them to accept her as their future sister-in-law, it was obvious Luffy cared about them and probably their opinion a lot.

Ace looked up at hearing her words, laughed and said, “You have my approval Hancock and Sabos too.”

“Wait, what?” was the last thing Sabo could utter, before Ace grabbed his arm and pulled him straight to the table filled with food, that the Kuja Warriors had set up.

“Approve? Approve of what Ace? Hey don’t eat everything without me!” Luffy shouted and ran after them.

Hancock promptly fainted, dreaming about her future husband, her sisters were barely able to catch her before she crumbled to the ground. 

Rayleigh chuckled witnessing the events unfold before him. The younger sisters invited him to join the lunch and he sat across from his new apprentices.

“Ace, did you find the sake cups yet?” Luffy questioned holding a bottle of sake he found sitting on the table.

Ace placed down three matching red sake cups in front of himself and his brothers. “Yeez, you’re so impatient.”

Luffy quickly filled all three, placed down the bottle and turned his attention to his blond brother when he started talking.

“A decade ago we promised, that we would always stay brothers even if we sailed on different ships. Even if I didn’t remember you two for a long time, you were still my brothers and always will be, that will never change no matter what. So let’s toast for another decade of being brothers and sail the sees free and without regret.” Sabo finished his speech and picked up his cup.

His brothers mimicked him and they clinked their cups together. The sake sloshed from each cup and spilled over to the others. Simultaneously they all drank their sake, smiling from ear to ear.

The next two years were spent training under the harsh guidance of their teacher. Prompted by Luffy, Rayleigh would often tell them the adventures he had on his journey as the Pirate Kings First Mate. Ace learned more about his father these two years, than he had his whole life. He never ended up liking him, but somewhere along the line, the hate he had for him vanished.

The Revolutionary Army picked up Sabo two days before the Whitebeard Pirates picked up Ace. Luffy stayed behind, refusing both offers to bring him to Sabaody. Hancock had brought him there last time and he was sure she would this time too. 

Luffy soon reunited with his crew and they set sail on adventures he already knew the outcomes off. He sulked on a lot of the days, saying, “It’s not an adventure if I know what’s gonna happen.” Suffice to say the crew were utterly stumped, questioning what he was going on about.

Everything went much the same with only minimal changes. He beat Hody Jones, freeing Fishman Island, Law offered an alliance and was completely surprised when Luffy immediately accepted without questioning his motives. Luffy still joined the fight in the colosseum, even though the prize this time around was some unknown Devil Fruit. He forgot all about Laws capture, so when Sabo showed up in the Colosseum, undercover on a mission, he asked him if he wanted to take his spot, so Luffy could save Law from Doflamingos clutches.

Sanji left again and Luffy didn’t take any precautions to prevent it, because he definitely didn’t want to miss the awesome fight he had against Katakuri. They also needed to steal a copy of Big Moms Road Poneglyph anyway, but this time around Luffy was able to prevent Pedro from sacrificing himself, by also beating Perospero beforehand.

Currently, Luffy was sitting in the infirmary of the Thousand Sunny. While he was much stronger than last time around, Katakuri was still no pushover. So even if Luffys injuries weren’t as bad as last time, Chopper still forced him to bedrest. They were on their way to Wano and Luffy was contemplating if he should go to sleep. 

‘What if I wake up back in time again? I can’t say I did everything perfectly this time around, but that doesn’t mean I wanna live through this a third time. Everything from here on out is unknown territory for me, I wanna have a real adventure again.’ were Luffys last thoughts before he succumbed to sleep.

The next time he opened his eyes he was greeted by a wooden ceiling, a smile bloomed across his face and he sighed in relief.

“Wait for me Kaido, because I’m coming to beat your ass.”

Luffy shot out of the infirmary bed and followed the smell of Sanjis cooking. He wouldn’t have been able to live another two years without his Chefs delicious food.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this would be a good place to end it. I just wanted to thank you all for reading, leaving kudos and commenting, without all that I don’t think I would have continued past the first few chapters. I have some ideas I definitely wanna write, but they don’t fit into this story line. I started a new story, I hope you guys give it a chance too.


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